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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 






A 



Review of the 
Bibles 



By DAVID R. COUGHLIN 




Crane C& Company, Printers 

Topeka, Kansas 

1916 






Copyrighted, 1916, 

by 

DAVID R. COUGHLIN, 

Concordia, Kansas, 

U. S. A. 




MAR 28 1916 
©CI.A427441 

> 7w / 



To 
BELVA G. COUGHLIN, 

My Wife, 

my help and inspiration in all things, 

this volume is lovingly 

dedicated. 



"Come now, and let us reason to- 
gether, saith the Lord" (Isa.I:18). 

"Prove all things: hold fast to that 
which is good" (I Thess. V:21). 

"All scripture is given by the inspi- 
ration of God, and is profitable for 
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, 
and for instruction in righteousness" 
(II Tim. 111:16). 



CONTENTS 



Page 

The Three Versions 9 

The Canon 17 

The Early Christian Fathers 25 

Characters of the Bible : 

Jehovah 27 

Satan 34 

The Jews 36 

Moses 40 

Abraham 43 

Isaac 45 

Jacob 46 

David 48 

Solomon 52 

The Prophets 54 

Women Characters of the Bible 61 

Woman and Marriage 62 

What Does the Bible Teach? 66 

War. 69 

Temperance 72 

Polygamy 74 

Slavery 77 

Lying 81 

Witchcraft 83 

Thievery 85 

Mob Rule 86 

Obscene Passages of the Bible . T 87 



CONTENTS 



Stories : Foolish and Otherwise : Page 

Cain 90 

Ark of the Covenant 91 

Korah, Dathan and Abiram 93 

Samson 95 

The Quail Story 96 

Ehud 97 

Jael 99 

Jezebel 101 

Zipporah 102 

The Cannibals 103 

The Snakes 104 

Christ's Biographers 105 

St. Peter 112 

St. Paul 114 

Heaven and Hell 118 

The Atonement , 120 

The Unpardonable Sin 122 

Immortality 123 

True Religion 125 



REVIEW gf THE BIBLES 



THE THREE VERSIONS 




T is probable that at the present time 
there is no book that is so much 
talked of and so little read as is the 
Holy Bible. A great many people 
talk of it, but few read it with the in- 
tention of learning its true contents. 
There are at present three ac- 
cepted versions of the Bible. It is 
claimed for each of these versions that it is the true 
and correct word of God ; but no two versions con- 
vey the same meaning or read alike in many cor- 
responding texts. 

There is in use at present one multiplication table. 
It is admitted by all who make use of it to be abso- 
lutely correct. There is but one version of this table, 
but in case there were three, it would render it use- 
less, as it would be impossible to tell which was the 
correct version. It is impossible to conceive of two 
or more correct versions of this table. Could any- 
thing be more ridiculous than a Protestant, Roman 
Catholic or a Revised Version of the multiplication 



10 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

table? It is just as impossible to conceive of two or 
more correct versions of the Bible. 

The versions of the Holy Bible, considered in order 
of their antiquity, are the Douay Version, The King 
James or Authorized Version, and the Revised Ver- 
sion. 

The Douay Version is the oldest and original ver- 
sion of Holy Writ. Fragments of this Bible were 
published as early as 1535 A. D. The New Testa- 
ment was completed and published in 1582 A. D., and 
the complete Bible 1609 A. D. This information is 
gathered from the authorized statements of the Church 
of Rome. 

This Bible contains seven books not included in the 
Authorized Version, viz. : Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, 
Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, First Machabees, and Second 
Machabees. The canon of this version has been 
changed frequently, but this is the list as lastly de- 
cided upon as being the true and correct word of 
God. The Douay Version is at present the accepted 
and authentic version of the greatest and strongest 
organization that bears the name of a Christian 
Church, the Roman Catholic Church. 

In the year 1603 King James ascended the throne 
of England. He was not pleased with the versions of 
the Bible extant. Accordingly, in the fourth year of 
his reign, he appointed a body of men, fifty-four in 
number, to prepare a translation of the Scriptures. 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 11 

After making appointments for this purpose, he gave 
notice that if there were any other persons who might 
consider themselves competent to translate, he would 
be pleased to have them assist with the work. This 
commission, after a period of about three years, com- 
pleted its work, and the translation then made, and 
now known as the Authorized Version, was published. 
This was, as claimed by some authorities, in the year 
1610, while others place the date at 1611. This is 
the most popular version extant, as it is accepted by 
more Christians than any of the other versions. 

The Revised Version was printed in May, 1881. 
The work was begun in 1870, in consequence of an 
action taken by the convocation of Canterbury (Eng- 
land). At the same time there was an American 
committee working in conjunction with the English 
committee. This committee has published a version 
of its own, thereby making two versions of the Re- 
vised Version. 

The English committee, after deliberate balloting, 
chose a body of men to perform the task of revising 
the Old Testament, and a separate body for the work 
of revision of the New. The rules as adopted to 
govern these committees in their work of revision, 
were as follows : 

1. To introduce as few alterations as possible into 
the text of the Authorized Version, consistently with 
faithfulness. 



12 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

2. To limit, as far as possible, the expression of such 
alterations to the language of the Authorized and 
earlier English versions. 

3. Each company to go twice over the portion re- 
vised, once provisionally, and the second time finally, 
and on principles of voting as hereinafter provided. 

4. That the text adopted be that for which the 
evidence is decidedly preponderating ; and that when 
the text so adopted differs from that from which the 
Authorized Version was made, the alteration be in- 
dicated in the margin. 

5. To make or retain no change in the text on the 
second final revision by each company, except two- 
thirds of those present approve the same, but on first 
revision to decide by simple majorities. 

6. In every case of proposed alteration that may 
have given rise to discussion, to defer the voting there- 
upon until the next meeting, whensoever the same 
shall be required by one-third of those present at the 
meeting, such intended vote to be announced in the 
notice of the next meeting. 

7. To revise the headings of chapters and pages, 
paragraphs, italics, and punctuation. 

8. To refer on the part of each company, when con- 
sidered desirable, to Divines, Scholars, and Literary 
Men, whether at home or abroad. 

The deliberations of this body were along the same 
lines as all other bodies of the same character. If 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 13 

the Authorized Version was correct, why the revision? 
Had the world been without a correct version of the 
Scriptures until this body completed its work? 

They admit their liability to err in the third rule, 
by requiring a second reading. In the fourth rule 
they are governed by evidence and not by text. In 
the fifth, they adopt the rule of previous councils' 
methods of deciding authenticity, by voting. The 
changing of the headings of chapters is of no conse- 
quence, as they are admittedly the work of the trans- 
lators in all the versions. These headings were never 
a part of the text. They admit their weakness as to 
making correct translations, in the eighth rule, by re- 
ferring to other authorities. These translators were 
of the same general class as those who made the trans- 
lations for the former versions. 

This body changed the form of verses and the head- 
ings of chapters to some extent. Considering that 
there was no division into chapters and verses until 
1560 A. D., perhaps they were right in changing them. 

They undoubtedly translated to the best of their 
ability, but failed to advance any proof of their com- 
petence to render a correct translation, but readily 
admit the translators of the former versions had erred. 
They advanced no claim to infallibility. 

To illustrate the various readings to be found in the 
several versions, the texts here given are taken from 
the sixth verse, of the eighth chapter, of the Song of 



14 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

Solomon, given in the Douay Version as the Canticle 
of Canticles. It would arouse the curiosity of the 
average reader to understand how so many readings 
could be derived from the same text by persons who 
considered themselves competent to translate cor- 
rectly. 

In the Douay Version the text is as follows : "Put 
me a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm, for 
love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell, the 
lamps thereof are fire and flames." 

The Authorized text is as follows : "Set me a seal 
upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm : for love 
is strong as death ; jealousy is cruel as the grave ; the 
coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most ve- 
hement flame." 

The text from the American Revised : 

"Set me a seal upon thy heart, 
As a seal upon thine arm : 
For love is strong as death ; 
Jealousy as strong as Sheol ; 
The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, 
A very flame of Jehovah." 

The English Revised translation is substantially the 
same as the above. It will be noted that the Douay 
and Authorized translators failed to find either Je- 
hovah or the Lord mentioned. In fact, he is not men- 
tioned in either book of these two versions, and in 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 15 

this way the Song of Solomon was godless until the 
year of grace 1881. The Douay translators found 
some hell, but it seems to have escaped the notice of 
the other three. 

It would be a natural conclusion that if Christians 
had preserved any part of their Bible free from cor- 
ruption that it would be the Lord's Prayer, a little 
prayer consisting of a few lines. But they have not. 
The prayer is given differently in each of the so-called 
versions. Will some kind Christian tell us in which 
version it is quoted correctly? 

The prayer in the Douay Version is as follows : 
"Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. 
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it 
is in heaven. Give us this day our supersubstantial 
bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive 
our debtors. And lead us not into temptation. But 
deliver us from evil. Amen" (Matt. VI: 9 to 12). 

The Authorized is as follows : "Our Father which 
art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom 
come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us 
our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us 
not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for 
thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for- 
ever. Amen." 

The Revised is as follows : "Our Father who art in 
heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. 



16 RE VIEW OF THE BIBLES 

Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us 
this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, 
as we also forgive our debtors. And bring us not 
into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. 

Amen." 

But one conclusion can be reached concerning these 
various translations, and that is this : the translators 
were either incapable of translating correctly, or the 
texts were of an unintelligible nature and could not be 
translated intelligently. 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 17 



THE CANON 



T[E books now contained in the Bible are not 
all the books that were originally credited 
with inspiration. The Roman Church has 
preserved ah I : ;:.~r :/; ih:. :r. ar.i Z .:.::: a r. ':. :: ; ;; 
through the Dark Ages. 

The books were not considered canonical from a 
standpoint of authorship. The authorship of all the 
': : : ■:: ; :" :he Eh'.t :: shr: uded La mystery The r.um- 
ber of authors claimed for the various books will com- 
pare favorably with the number of commentators en- 
gaged in guessing who they were. 

It was maintained for a long time that Moses was 
the author of the Pentateuch. That theory has been 
= iar.i;r.ez ::r.;t - :::;:. = r.: i zree that the He ire"- al- 
phabet was first used about 900 B. C, and as Moses 
died 1451 B. C. according to Bible chronologers, he 
would have been dead about five hundred and fifty 
years before the use of the Hebrew alphabet had 
been introduced. 

There are :;;h: rrzTr.zr.zt in the Bible that are net 
now in existence. The book of Jasher (Josh. X : 13), 
the book of The Wars of the Lord (Num. XXI : 14), 
the book of Nathan, the Prophet I Chron. XXIX : 
29 and II Chron. IX : 29), the book of Gad. the Seer 



18 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

(I Chron. XXIX : 29), and Iddo, the Seer (II Chron. 
IX: 29). 

The books above named are mentioned as of equal 
authority as those from which the references are 
taken. What has become of these books? Is it pos- 
sible that they were lost by the Jews, as was the book 
of Law? If they would suffer an important work 
like the book of Law to become lost, how could they 
be expected to care for the less important books? So 
if the history contained in the other books is depend- 
able, our present Bible is far from complete. 

In the second book of Chronicles (XXXIV: 14) 
we read that Hilkiah found the book of Law after it 
had been lost for a period of approximately eight 
hundred years. The law seems to have constituted 
a most important portion of the Jewish sacred writ- 
ings. This circumstance gives rise to some very 
strange conclusions. It would seem that the Lord's 
holy people had been without any law to govern them 
for a period of eight hundred years. Can we suppose 
that an Infinite Being could have written or dictated 
a law, and based all his people's happiness on it, and 
then suffered it to become lost? 

Where could this book have been? It was surely 
not mislaid in any safe place or it would not have 
been lost. The account states that the king, Josiah, 
rent his clothes when the book of Law was read. 
These people spoke the Hebrew language. If they 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 19 

read any language , they read the Hebrew. Historians 
agree that the Hebrew alphabet was first used about 
900 B. C. This Law was found about 667 B. C, ac- 
cording to Bible chronologers. The book had been 
written approximately eight hundred years before, or 
about five hundred fifty years before the use of the 
Hebrew alphabet had been introduced. The Law 
must have been written in hieroglyphics, or picture 
writing, as the Hebrew is one of the first alphabets 
of which historians have a record. Therefore, how 
was it possible for these people to translate and read 
this law? If the Law that was found was written in 
Hebrew it was evidently a forgery, because it could 
not have been written by Moses. 

The Jews have three divisions of their sacred writ- 
ings, viz. : The Law, The Prophets, and The Hagiog- 
rapha. The books of Law are as follows : Genesis, 
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The 
books of the Prophets : (Major) Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 
First Samuel, Second Samuel, First Kings, Second 
Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Lamentations ; (Minor) 
Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, 
Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Mal- 
achi. The books of the Hagiographa : Psalms, Prov- 
erbs, Job, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesi- 
astes, First Chronicles, Second Chronicles, and Song 
of Solomon. 

The history of the formation of the Jewish canon 



20 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

is very obscure. We are more fortunate in being 
able to procure data concerning the formation of the 
Christian canon. The Roman Church maintains, 
and always has, that the authority of tradition is 
equally as reliable as the authority of inspiration. It 
is a noticeable fact that there is very little, if any, 
reading of the Scriptures among the members of that 
church. 

It was about fifteen hundred years after the death 
of Christ that some one discovered that a belief in 
the inspiration of the Scriptures is essential to salva- 
tion. Luther is generally accredited with being the 
one who first advanced this idea. It may be seen 
how the Roman Church advances the claim of tra- 
dition, and the Protestant Church the claim of in- 
spiration. The Protestant Church could not consist- 
ently advance any other claim, as it was not in ex- 
istence in time to receive and hand down tradition, 
hence it grabs at inspiration as a drowning man grabs 
at a straw. So in the history of the canon, tradition 
antedates inspiration at least twelve centuries. Belief 
in the inspiration of the Scriptures as being essential 
to salvation has been advanced for only about four 
hundred years. 

The first history of the development of the Chris- 
tian canon dates back to 325 A. D. The Nicene 
Council in that year considered and passed upon the 
authenticity of the writings then extant. There sat 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 21 

i n i ■ i i ■ ■ i 

in that council some three hundred bishops. There 
were at that time hundreds of manuscripts being read 
in the various churches. These were becoming so 
numerous that it became absolutely necessary that the 
church decide on the authenticity of these manu- 
scripts. 

We are told by historians that in deciding the 
authenticity of the manuscripts, all of them were 
placed under the table, and prayer being offered by 
that august body, the genuine manuscripts arose and 
settled themselves upon the top of the table, and the 
spurious ones remained beneath. This is one of the 
early accounts of the formation of the canon. 

A portion of the Apocryphal books is published in 
two volumes, known as the Apocryphal New Testa- 
ment and the Apocryphal Old Testament. 

The bishops who sat in the Council of Nice were 
aided, perhaps, by the writings of Irenseus, who lived 
and wrote about 200 A. D.,and who wrote that there 
should be four gospels, because there are four quarters 
of the earth, four universal winds, and quadrupeds 
require four legs to sustain their weight ; hence there 
should be four gospels. 

Irenseus is the first writer to make mention of all 
four of the four gospels, that are included in the va- 
rious versions of the present Bible. Irenseus also 
wrote a gospel, and Cardinal Gibbons lamented the 
fact that through some unfortunate circumstance it 



22 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

had become lost. It would seem from Cardinal Gib-^ 
bons' comment on the affair, that Irenseus' time was 
an appropriate time to write a gospel. 

Justin Martyr, writing about 150 A. D., is the first 
of the early Christian Fathers to refer to written 
records. But in his writings no mention is made of the 
four gospels. His Bible was the Old Testament and 
he seemed to have no knowledge of the four gospels, 
or of a New Testament. 

Papias, writing about 150 A. D., states: "And 
John, the presbyter, also said this : 'Mark being the 
interpreter of Peter, whatsoever he recorded he wrote 
with great accuracy, but not, however, in the order 
in which it was spoken or done by our Lord, for he 
neither heard nor followed our Lord, but, as before 
said, he was in company with Peter, who gave him 
such instruction as was necessary, but not to give 
history of our Lord's discourses ; wherefore Mark has 
not erred in anything, by writing some things he has 
recorded them, for he was carefully attentive to one 
thing, not to pass anything he heard, or to state any- 
thing falsely in these accounts.' " 

Papias' writings are not now extant, but the fore- 
going is taken from Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, 
and is, of course, good, sound, orthodox authority. 

Suppose that Papias is referring to our present 
gospel of Mark; what testimony have we of the 
authenticity of Jesus' words it contains? Just this: 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 23 

Eusebius states that Papias states that John, the 
presbyter, said that Mark said that Peter said that 
Jesus said thus and so. This is the historical authen- 
ticity of the gospel of Mark. 

Papias states that Matthew wrote his gospel in 
Hebrew. The manuscript from which our present 
translation was made was written in Greek. Jerome 
ventured the assertion that by whom the translation 
was made is uncertain. This is the extent of the 
theologians' knowledge. 

The gospel of Luke is addressed to "The most ex- 
cellent Theophilis." Theophilis lived, according to 
church history, and was bishop at Antioch about 180 
A. D. The conclusion naturally drawn from these 
facts is, that the gospels were all written in the latter 
part of the second century. 

The Roman Church claims date of authorship of 
gospels as follows : Matthew, six years after the death 
of Christ ; Mark, ten years ; Luke, twenty-four years ; 
and John, sixty-three years. 

Note here the difference in the origin of these sacred 
writings and the sacred writings of Mohammed. The 
Christian Scriptures were supplied at various times 
by writers whose identity was in some cases very un- 
certain. Mohammed, as Savior, dictated all his 
own Scriptures to his scribe as he received them from 
God, while Christ never dictated one word, never 
wrote one word, nor did he even look to the writing 



24 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

of his words to the world during his life. No one 
thought for six years, according to church history, 
that the sayings of Christ were worth recording. How 
could the gospels be supposed to harmonize when men, 
writing them at different periods of time, depended 
entirely upon memory? 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 25 



THE EARLY CHRISTIAN FATHERS 

THE early Christian Fathers were instrumental 
in establishing the theory that the books of 
the New Testament are inspired. The popu- 
lar idea as established by all religious teachers is that 
they were learned men, worthy of the highest respect. 
One of the charges lodged against Servetus, at the 
time that he was burned to death by John Calvin, 
was that he had spoken disrespectfully of the Fathers. 
A citation of a few facts concerning the mental char- 
acteristics of the Fathers will show conclusively that 
they were ignorant and superstitious in the extreme. 

Justin Martyr believed in demons. He said they 
were the offspring of angels who courted the daughters 
of men. Some of them were the souls of wicked 
people who had died in their sins. Insane people 
were possessed of demons, and these tortured them 
until they became insane ; and this was proof con- 
clusive of the immortality of the soul. 

Origen advanced the theory that the sun, moon 
and stars were living creatures, possessed of reason 
and free-will, and at times committed sin ; that these 
planets have free-will he proved by quoting from Job 
XXV : 5 ; he inferred that they were rational crea- 
tures because they moved. 



26 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



Theophilis, "The Most Excellent," to whom Luke 
addressed his gospel, believed that the pain suffered 
by mothers in child-bearing was conclusive proof of 
the fall as related in Genesis. 

Tertullian believed that the hyena changed its sex 
every year, and that volcanoes are openings into hell. 

These are the ideas as advanced by the men who 
were instrumental in establishing the claim of inspira- 
tion for the books of the New Testament. Christian 
apologists have advanced the argument that although 
the Fathers may have been mistaken in some of their 
opinions, it did not necessarily detract from their 
spiritual insight. 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 27 



CHARACTERS OF THE BIBLE 

JEHOVAH 

THE fourth word of the Bible is "God." He is 
the first character mentioned: the book 
claims for him, the creator and preserver of 
the universe. As he is described as a personal God, 
it is well to inquire as to what his character really is, 
as chronicled by his inspired writers. As he is rep- 
resented as having had numerous dealings with men, 
it will be well to note what these dealings were, and 
if they are in accordance with our sense of justice at 
the present time. 

Any quotations here given will be found in the 
Authorized Version, as this is the popular version of 
the book. If reference is made to any other version, 
such reference will be noted. 

In the first place the question naturally arises, 
"Has any man ever seen God?" In Exodus it is 
stated that, "Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and sev- 
enty of the elders of Israel" all saw God (XXIV : 9) ; 
but John states that, "No man hath seen God at any 
time" (1 : 18). In Genesis we read, "For I have seen 
God face to face and my life is preserved" (XXXII : 
30). In Exodus we read, "Thou shalt not see my 
face ; for there shall be no man see my face and live" 



28 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

(XXXIII : 20). In Isaiah we read, "I saw the Lord 
sitting upon a throne" (VI : 1) ; but John states, "Ye 
have neither heard his voice, at any time, nor seen 
his shape" (V: 37). Just what conclusion may be 
reached from reading these passages is hard to esti- 
mate. The wisest man in the world could not tell 
whether any one had seen God or not. Perhaps the 
best solution to the problem is in Jehovah's own 
words : 

"And the Lord said, behold, there is a place by me, 
thou shalt stand upon a rock: and it shall come to 
pass, while my glory passeth by, and I will put thee 
in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover thee with my 
hand while I pass by: and I will take away mine 
hand, and thou shalt see my back parts ; but my 
face shall not be seen" (Exod. XXXIII : 21-23). 

But by reading further it would seem that some 
must have seen him, that they might give such de- 
scriptions of him as the following: "There went up 
a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth 
devoured : coals were kindled by it " (II Sam. XXII : 
9). "He had horns coming out on his hand" (Hab. 
Ill: 4). "His lips are full of indignation, and his 
tongue is a devouring fire" (Isa. XXX: 27). These 
descriptions do not bring to the mind a picture of 
Infinite Love and Wisdom. Yet we are supposed 
to believe that this is a portrayal of the character of 
the loving God. 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 29 

Let us inquire farther of the inspired writers as to 
the character of their God. The narrator of Exodus 
states : "For thou shalt worship no other God : for 
the Lord whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" 
(XXXIV : 14). This same jealous God is also known 
as Jehovah, Adonia, and Elohim, and when he was a 
tribal God, just making his debut in the god business, 
he was known as Yahweh. 

"It was only gradually that the idea of the unity 
of God dawned upon the teachers of Israel : in the 
beginning the Hebrew Yahweh was a tribal God, in 
all essential respects like the gods of other nations'' 
(Meyers Ancient History, Revised, Sec. 87) . 

Be it remembered, that this is the same God that 
the Mohammedans worship. They have a hell of 
their own, very similar to the Christian hell, to which 
they consign unbelievers as unceremoniously as do 
the Christians. Where they fall from Christian faith 
is, to quote from the Koran, "Say God is one God: 
the eternal God : he begetteth not, neither is he be- 
gotten ; and there is not any one like unto him." 

In what way did this God treat his people? We 
are told, "For the Lord will not forsake his people for 
his great name's sake : for it hath pleased the Lord 
to make you his people" (I Sam. XII : 22). But do 
other accounts bear out this statement? The Judges 
narrator states, "He gathered unto him the children 
of Ammon and Amalek and went and smote Israel" 



30 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



(III: 13). The account further states that the peoples 
of Israel served the king of Moab for eighteen years. 
This was not only desertion, but was also traitorous. 
He not only deserted his own people, but mustered a 
strange army and fought against them. 

The same narrator also informs us that Jehovah 
sold his people into the hand of the king of Canaan 
and for twenty years he mightily oppressed them 
(IV: 2). It is therefore reasonable to conclude that 
they were sold into slavery. Had not Jehovah de- 
serted his people when he sold them into slavery? On 
two other occasions it is recorded that he turned 
traitor to his people and delivered them into the 
hands of their enemies (II : 14 and VI : 1). 

Jehovah acknowledges the existence of other gods 
(Deut. VI : 14) , and the narrator of Exodus states 
that his name is Jealous, because he is jealous of other 
gods. This inspired narrator's language should be 
fumigated with a strong deodorant before it is allowed 
to be read in the young ladies' and young men's Sun- 
day School class (XXXIV: 15). 

This God is represented to the Sunday School stu- 
dent as a spirit. He is always represented to be a 
good spirit, and as being opposed to all evil. Let us 
see if his inspired narrators agree with the Sunday 
School teacher. 

Instances of where he wrought evil are numerous. 
"This evil is of the Lord" (II Kings VI : 33). "Then 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 31 

God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the 
men of Shechem" (Jud. IX : 23) . The account states 
that it caused the men to deal treacherously with each 
other. "And it came to pass that when the evil 
spirit from God was upon Saul, . . . and the evil 
spirit departed from him" (I Sam. XVI : 23). What 
must be the spirit of one who would issue a command 
like this to his general? "But of the cities of these 
people, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an 
inheritance, thou shalt save nothing alive that breath- 
eth" (Deut. XX: 16). 

Does this breathe the spirit of love? "Cursed shalt 
thou be in the city and cursed shalt thou be in the 
field" (Deut. XXVIII: 16). 

"And he said, I will hide my face from them ; I will 
see what their end shall be ; they have provoked me 
to anger with their vanities ; I will move them to 
jealousy with those that are not a people ; I will pro- 
voke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire 
is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn to the lowest 
hell, and consume the earth with her increase, and 
set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will 
heap mischief upon them ; I will spend mine arrows 
upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger and 
devoured with burning heat, and bitter destruction : 
I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with 
the poison of the serpents of the dust. The sword 
without and the terror within, shall destroy both the 



32 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the 
man of gray hairs" (Deut. XXXII : 20-25). 

"And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, 
and the flesh of thy sons and daughters'* (Deut. 
XXVIII: 53). 

According to the narrator of Second Samuel, chap- 
ter twenty-four, God moved David to number Israel. 
The narrator of Chronicles, writing of the same event, 
states that the Devil caused David to do so (XXI : 1). 
The Samuel narrator states that when the census was 
completed it was found that the fighting men of Israel 
and Judea numbered one million three hundred thou- 
sand. The narrator of Chronicles gives the number 
one million five hundred seventy thousand. Here is 
a sample of inspired numbers. There is a difference 
in estimates of two hundred seventy thousand, or a 
sufficient number of persons to populate a city as large 
as Denver, Colorado. 

God became angry at David after the census was 
taken, and sent his agent to confer with him con- 
cerning the act. David was given his choice of seven 
years' famine, three months' fleeing before his enemies, 
or a pestilence. David having faith in the mercy of 
Jehovah, chose the pestilence, with the result that 
God slew seventy thousand Jews, who had committed 
no other offense than to stand up and be counted. 
Would Satan have done any worse under the same 
circumstances? 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 33 

It would have been a befitting task for Satan to 
bruise to death with hailstones innocent dumb beasts 
in order to inflict punishment upon their owners 
(Exod. IX: 6 and 25). 

"I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the 
light and create darkness ; I make peace and create 
evil ; I, the Lord, do all these things" (Isa. XLV : 7). 
Jehovah admits his inability to govern his people : 
"I have nourished and brought up children and they 
have rebelled against me" (Isa. 1:2). 

According to Ezekiel, after all the trials and tribu- 
lations, God admits his laws were bad and that his 
judgments were such that they should not be required 
to keep them. "Wherefore I gave them statutes 
that were not good, and judgments whereby they should 
not live" (Ezek. XX: 25). 

This God advises his people to avoid eating the 
flesh of beasts that die of natural causes, but advises 
them to sell the same to strangers. Anyone with 
even a distorted sense of justice would realize that 
this is one law that is "not good and whereby they 
should not live" (Deut. XIV: 21). 

But the most revolting characteristics ascribed to 
God is by Isaiah in the third chapter, seventeenth 
verse. It is of such a nature that it is better left in 
Holy Writ. 



34 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



SATAN 

SATAN is the necessary evil to the Christian 
scheme of redemption. As the necessary evil 
he made his appearance four thousand years 
prior to the appearance of the Redeemer. In his first 
appearance, Christianity gives him the credit of out- 
witting the Infinite God. 

After Satan's first triumph over God, the Christians 
were willing to acknowledge his kingdom. He has 
been active ever since, except for the space of a thou- 
sand years, when, according to St. John, an angel 
came from heaven and bound him and cast him into 
the bottomless pit. Just when he was bound is un- 
certain, but, according to tradition, the thousand 
years have expired and he is free to roam and do as 
he pleases. When the heavenly hosts had him bound, 
why did they not keep him bound, thereby saving 
these tired and overworked clergymen the awful men- 
tal strain occasioned by their heroic efforts to save 
souls from his clutches? 

His kingdom will be more densely populated than 
heaven. Those desiring to ' 'follow the crowd' ' should 
make application to his kingdom. Christians have 
already allotted to him all the Jews, all the Moham- 
medans, all the Brahmins and Buddhists, to say noth- 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 35 

ing of the army of freethinkers. There are at the 
present time more pagans than Christians and Mo- 
hammedans combined. It may be readily seen that 
Satan will have, according to the Christian forecast, 
the most populous kingdom in existence. 

But the most unreasonable part of it all is, that, 
on account of Satan's first triumph over God, it be- 
came necessary that God send his son upon earth and 
allow him to be crucified that this first exploit of 
Satan's might be set right; that God might finally 
triumph. 



36 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



THE JEWS 

IT will not be amiss, having acquainted ourselves 
with Jehovah, to make a short inquiry as to the 
character of the Jews, or the people of his own 
choosing. They were to be living and moral examples 
for all mankind. It is probable that their own writers 
would overrate them rather than underrate them. 
We will examine Isaiah's testimony ; we find his 
rating as follows : "Their hands are defiled with blood, 
their fingers with iniquity ; and their lips speak lies ; 
their tongues mutter perverseness. None of them 
call for justice ; none of them plead for the truth. 
They trust in vanity and speak lies ; they conceive 
mischief and bring forth iniquity, and the act of vio- 
lence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, they 
make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts 
are the thoughts of iniquity ; wasting and destruc- 
tion are in their paths (Isa. LIX: 3, 4, 7). David 
corroborates these statements by declaring : "There 
is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Psa. XIV: 3). 
Their moral status must have been very low, judg- 
ing from the law given for their observance in the 
fifteenth and eighteenth chapters of Leviticus. 

They were a locust- and grasshopper-eating tribe, 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 37 

which shows more fully that they were barbarians : 
"Ye may eat the locust and the beetle and the grass- 
hopper after his kind" (Lev. XI: 22). Is there at 
present any nation subsisting on grasshoppers, beetles 
and locusts that is considered a civilized nation? 

Is it not strange that God chose such a tribe of 
barbarians with which to build a nation that for 
clean morals and surpassing wisdom would astonish 
the world? What success did he have according to 
his own history of the affair? 

Jehovah tried for about sixteen hundred years, 
after being thwarted in his original plans by Satan, 
to civilize his people ; he abandoned the plan as use- 
less, and drowned them all but eight persons. 

With such an object lesson as this fresh in their 
memories, he believed that he would have no trouble 
in bringing them into submission. But in this he was 
mistaken. They determined to build a tower to 
heaven and occupy the celestial realms. Jehovah was 
willing to own them as his people as long as they re- 
mained on earth, but he felt that when they wanted 
him to share heaven with them, they were imposing 
upon good nature. But as he had promised them 
never to use the water cure again, it devolved upon 
him to confuse their language. 

Finding success in trying to govern all of them im- 
possible, he chose Abraham and his descendants. 



38 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

Then the Egyptians upset all his plans in capturing 
God's people, by enticing them into Egypt and plac- 
ing them in bondage. 

After four hundred years of captivity, Jehovah con- 
jured, cajoled and wheedled Pharaoh into releasing 
his people, and he started with them for Palestine. 
He kept them wandering until nearly all who came 
from Egypt died. On one occasion when they ob- 
jected to the rations on which they were being fed, 
and incidentally hinted that a change of diet would 
be acceptable, God became enraged and released a 
herd of snakes, and the snakes bit the people, and 
"much people of Israel died." 

Then he took them to Palestine and tried govern- 
ing them with judges. Here he scored another fail- 
ure. 

Then he tried kings, but the most of the kings were 
idolaters or possessed a supreme fondness for fair 
women and Oriental finery. 

Then the chosen people were taken captive into 
Babylon ; more bad luck for Jehovah! 

Then they returned, and he tried the civilizing in- 
fluence of prophets, howlers and wailers ; but the 
people grew worse and worse. 

As a last resort, Jehovah took upon himself flesh, and 
lived and taught among his chosen people ; but again 
they failed to appreciate his efforts. They failed to 
recognize in him the same Jehovah who turned loose 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 39 

the herd of snakes upon them when they were in the 
wilderness. They charged him with being an infidel, 
and also with trying to destroy the true religion that 
he himself had established. They were even so un- 
appreciative as to publicly hang him. 

Now in the name of all that is good and holy, he 
threatens to damn to eternal punishment all his chosen 
people, whom he had spent thousands of years in try- 
ing to reform. 



40 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



MOSES 

MOSES, the great law-giver, was the leading 
character of Jewish history. His history is 
so closely connected with that of the Jews 
that a brief investigation of his character will not be 
amiss. It was claimed by him that he was on the 
most familiar terms with Jehovah. 

All laws given by him for observance by the Jews 
were supposed to have been given to him by Jehovah. 
It made no difference how cruel, heartless or wicked 
they may have been, they were ascribed to Jehovah. 
If some of his characterizations of God are not blas- 
phemous, the word should be stricken from the Eng- 
lish language. 

The law as it is given in Leviticus, twenty -first 
chapter, excluded from the congregation of the Lord 
all persons having a flat nose, crooked back, broken 
hand, cross-eyes, or who were blemished otherwise. 
It is considered by civilized people at the present 
time as an act of kindness to show courtesies to the 
unfortunate. 

Moses established a precedent when he married a 
negress. This is the first case on record of the inter- 
marriage of races. The marriage seems to have met 
with God's most hearty approval. We are informed 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 41 

that when Aaron, the priest, and Miriam, the sister 
of Moses, spake against Moses because of the Ethi- 
opian woman he had married, the Lord spake suddenly 
to the three, Moses, Aaron and Miriam, and ordered 
them to appear outside the tabernacle, as was sup- 
posed, to receive sentence. But God simply told them 
that Moses was a righteous servant. The account 
states that God was very angry, and when he de- 
parted Miriam was stricken with leprosy and was 
shut out of the camp for seven days. Thus all pro- 
ceedings were at a standstill among the Israelites, on 
account of one person voicing a just and righteous 
criticism (Num. XII). 

Previous to this occurrence is recorded a murder, 
perpetrated by this "most holy" man. We are led 
to believe that the offense for which the Egyptian 
was slain was that of smiting a Hebrew. The account 
states that he, Moses, looked this way and that, and 
as he saw no man, he slew the Egyptian and hid him 
in the sand. The account further states that on the 
second day, when Moses went out he found two He- 
brews strove together : and he said to him that did 
the wrong, "Why smitest thou him?" And the man 
replied, "Intendest thou to kill me as thou didst the 
Egyptian?" And Moses said, "Surely this thing is 
known" (Exod. II). Moses knew that he had com- 
mitted a murder, and his guilty conscience needed no 
accuser. 



42 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

Another account, which gives to the reader an idea, 
of the true character of Moses, is found in Numbers, 
thirty-first chapter, fifteenth to eighteenth verses. 
When Moses' army was returning from the fight with 
the Midianites, having slain all the men, Moses met 
the army with this inquiry: "Have you saved all 
the women alive?" And then he issued the order to 
the army to kill all the males among the little ones, 
save the maidens for themselves, and kill all the 
women who were not maidens. Nothing in barbarous 
warfare is hardly the equal of this brutal edict. Is 
this a lesson to teach the heathen? Or, Christian 
father and Christian mother, would you not hesitate 
before telling such a story to your children? Would 
you tell them that God's chieftain ever issued such 
an edict? 

Moses is represented as having shown more intel- 
lectual development than was shown by his God. In 
the story concerning the golden calf which the people 
fell to worshiping while Moses and his God were leg- 
islating, it is related that God became very angry with 
the worshipers of the calf and threatened to extermi- 
nate the whole race, but through Moses' better judg- 
ment God was persuaded to desist from his original 
plans. This would place God on an inferior intellectual 
plane to that of Moses. 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 43 



ABRAHAM 

THE narrator of Genesis, thirteenth chapter, 
sixteenth verse, states that God promised 
Abraham his seed was to be as dust of the 
earth and sands of the sea, compared as to multitude. 
At present, after more than three thousand eight 
hundred years of replenishing and multiplying on 
earth, his whole tribe numbers about ten million souls. 
A few handfuls of dust would represent their number 
instead of the sands of the sea, as promised. 

But what was the real character of Abraham? His 
conduct toward his servant girl, Hagar, would be at 
present considered as of a criminal nature. Men are 
in modern times shut safely behind the bars of state 
institutions for such conduct as is related concerning 
this "holy man" (Gen. XXI) — this man who was 
chosen by God to be of surpassing wisdom and to 
stand at the head of the moral regeneration of the 
human race. 

We read in Genesis, twelfth chapter, of how Abra- 
ham lied to Pharaoh. He not only lied to him, but 
he told Sarai before they reached Egypt that he was 
going to lie about her, for that was the only way out, 
and in this way he could profit at the sacrifice of her 
honor. "And my soul shall live because of thee." 



44 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

The account further states that Sarai was taken into 
Pharaoh's house and Pharaoh gave Abraham sheep, 
oxen, menservants, and maidservants. Then God sent 
a plague upon Pharaoh on account of Abraham's wife. 
The nineteenth verse explains why Pharaoh gave 
so much to Abraham and why God sent the plague. 
It is the kind of story that is peculiar to Holy 
Writ. Abraham also lied to Abimelech (Gen. XX). 
And after all this disgraceful conduct, God himself 
states that Abraham kept all his commands, his stat- 
utes, and his laws (Gen. XXVI : 5). 

There is one thing, however, that is to the credit of 
Abraham. After God had decided to destroy Sodom 
and Gomorrah, Abraham remonstrated with him and 
succeeded in getting a promise from him that if there 
were fifty righteous people in the city he would spare 
it for these fifty. Here is where Abraham's Jewish 
nature asserted itself. Abraham succeeded in getting 
God to reduce the saving number to forty -five, then 
to forty, then to thirty, then to twenty, then to ten ; 
then God left, supposedly fearing that Abraham would 
talk him out of the idea of destroying them at all. 
Evidently Abraham was not successful in securing the 
coveted ten, for God sent the full allowance of brim- 
stone, and destroyed all but the righteous Lot and 
family. 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 45 



ISAAC 

ISAAC followed the precept set by his father, prac- 
ticing the same fraud and deception. When the 
men of the plains asked him concerning his wife, 
he said, "She is my sister." Why did not God deal 
with him as he did with Ananias and Sapphira? The 
narrator of Acts states that God killed them for lying. 



46 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



JACOB 

JACOB opened his performance by trying to steal 
from his brother all his earthly rights as regarded 
his heritage ; added to this fact, he was also a 
monumental liar. When Isaac, old and blind, asked 
him, "Art thou my son Esau?" he replied, "I am" 
(Gen. XXVII: 24). 

We are led to believe that both Jehovah and Isaac 
had intended that Esau should inherit the blessing ; 
but Jacob, with the aid and connivance of his mother, 
outwitted both of them. At another time Jacob made 
an offer to God of one-tenth of all that God might 
permit him to raise. The account does not state if 
God accepted his generous offer. 

Jacob met Rachael while she was caring for her 
father's sheep. He became infatuated with her, and 
made a contract with her father to work for him for 
seven years, and to receive Rachael as his wife in re- 
turn for his labor. At the end of the seven years, 
Laban, Rachael's father, under the cover of darkness, 
substituted Leah for Rachael. Now Rachael was 
"winsome and well favored," and Leah was "blear- 
eyed," and as soon as Jacob discovered the substitu- 
tion he was not contented ; but Laban told him that 
if he wanted Rachael "to wife" he would be compelled 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 47 

to labor another seven years. Jacob consented to 
labor another seven years, and at the end of that 
time Laban made good his word, and gave Rachael to 
Jacob for his wife. 

This is where inspired polygamy was established. 
Here, with Jacob as father, and his two wives and 
the handmaid of each wife, as mothers, originated the 
twelve head tribesmen of the twelve tribes of Israel 
(Gen. XXIX and XXX). 

Jacob's lying propensities were transmitted to his 
sons, as the account in Genesis states that the sons of 
Jacob answered the men of Shechem deceitfully (Gen. 
XXXIV: 13). 



48 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



DAVID 

WE come now to David, "The man after God's 
own heart." Unquestionably he was the 
prince of iniquity workers. His first act of 
moral delinquency was that of turning traitor to 
Achish, king of Gath. After he had received an ap- 
pointment as ruler over Ziklag, he showed his in- 
gratitude by waging an unprovoked war for plunder 
upon the king's friends and relatives (I Sam. XXVII). 
The account further states that David smote the 
land and left man nor woman alive. What had the 
women done to deserve this kind of treatment? David 
was a marauder and, unlike Moses, would rather kill 
the women than save them alive. On another oc- 
casion he committed a similar act of aggression and 
spoilation on the rights and property of Nabal 
(I Sam. XXV). 

David's method of procuring Michal for his wife is 
revolting in the extreme to a just and sensitive mind. 
The conditions imposed upon David by Saul were 
most degrading in their nature. Should the history 
of David be dramatized and presented on the stage, 
the police authorities of any of our large cities would 
immediately put a ban upon its production. 

But as to the conditions named by Saul, to which 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 49 

David must comply to procure Michal for a wife, 
David proved himself equal to the occasion. He not 
only procured the required booty, but in his wild and 
zealous efforts to secure his prize he, wantonly and 
unprovoked, slew twice the number of men that he 
necessarily would have had to mistreat in order to 
have complied with the conditions imposed upon him 
to secure his prize (I Sam. XVIII). 

The manner in which he secured his beautiful 
Bathsheba "to wife," is another instance which marks 
him as a depraved caitiff. It seems that David was 
a sort of "Jack the peeper," as the account states that 
he saw her at her bath, "and the woman was very 
fair to look upon." He then sent messengers and 
took her. The remainder of the account may be read 
in the Bible, eleventh chapter Second Samuel. 

Then David ordered his commander-in-chief, Joab, 
to place Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, in the 
front rank of battle so that he might be slain. Joab 
executed the orders, and at the death of Uriah David 
took Bathsheba as his wife, thus making a polygamist 
of him again. 

After the child was born, God sent a messenger to 
David and informed him that he was displeased on 
account of this affair. It is related that God struck 
the child and it was very sick. (Why did not God 
strike David?) This caused David to fast and lie all 
night upon the ground. But the child died, evidently 



50 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

from the effects of the blow delivered by God. Then 
David took Bathsheba and comforted her, and she 
bore him another son, and this was the origin of the 
great and wise Solomon (II Sam. XII). 

David danced in a nearly nude state before God. 
This very much displeased Michal, Saul's daughter, 
who said to him, "How glorious was the king of Israel 
today who uncovered himself in the eyes of his hand- 
maids. " David replied by saying, "I will be even 
more vile than this, and will be base in mine own 
sight" (II Sam. VI: 20-22). 

David, in order to cause a famine to cease, sacri- 
ficed the sons of Saul. It was the order from Jehovah 
that when his subjects desired some special service, 
something must be sacrificed. In this instance it was 
the sons of Saul. A human sacrifice to appease the 
anger of Jehovah ! Five of the group that were hanged 
were the sons of David's own wife, Michal. Two 
were sons of Rizpah, the concubine of Saul, who with 
motherly devotion sat and watched the bodies of her 
sons that the beasts of the field and the fowls of the 
air might not prey upon them. The narrator states 
that God was contented with the sacrifice, and the 
famine ceased (II Sam. II : 21). 

Nothing short of a fiend would conceive of treating 
people as described in the following language: "And 
he brought forth the people that were therein, and 
put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 51 

under axes of iron, and made them pass through the 
brick-kiln. ..." (II Sam. XII : 31). 

His wicked prayer breathes hatred and revenge: 
"Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. 
Let the extortioner catch all that he hath" (Psa. CIX : 
9 and 11). 

His hopeless physical condition as set forth in his 
own language depicts the relics of a misspent life 
(Psa. XXXVIII). 

His tolerant spirit toward his son, Absalom (II 
Sam. XVI : 22), his dying charge to his son Solomon, 
not to allow the hoar head of Joab to go down in 
peace to the grave (I Kings II: 6), and at last his 
death and the unique method of trying to revive him 
(I Kings I), are sufficient to disclose to the thinking 
individual his true character, instead of the righteous 
man he is represented as being in the usual Sunday 
School lesson. 



52 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



SOLOMON 

SOLOMON'S history shows him to have been 
the greatest libertine and polygamist on record. 
Many of his sayings are supposed by some to 
be the wisest in the world. True, his experience with 
seven hundred wives and thr^e hundred concubines 
should qualify him to speak authoritatively on some 
subjects. He declared, "All is vanity and vexation 
of spirit/ ' His experience taught him that a man 
hath no pre-eminence above a beast (Eccl. Ill : 19), and 
there is no future state of the soul ; his judgment in 
this is verified by Job, fourteenth chapter, tenth verse. 

Solomon's Temple is believed by many to have 
been the finest and most gorgeous piece of architec- 
ture at the time it was built. Myers in his ancient 
history states that it was a poor imitation of the 
Babylonian temples then in existence. After taking 
the contradictory statements concerning it from the 
Bible history, few facts remain concerning the history 
of this wonderful piece of ancient architecture. 

"Also he made two pillars of brass, of eighteen 
cubits high apiece" (I Kings VII: 15). "Also he 
made before the house two pillars of thirty and five 
cubits high" (II Chron. Ill : 15). 

"Besides the chief of Solomon's officers which were 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 53 

over the work, three thousand and three hundred, 
which ruled over the people that wrought in the 
work" (I Kings V: 16). ". . . And three thou- 
sand and six hundred overseers to see the people 
awork" (II Chron. II: 18). 

"And he made a molten sea ; ... it contained 
two thousand baths" (I Kings VII : 23-26). "Also he 
made a molten sea . . . it held three thousand 
baths" (II Chron. IV: 2-5). 



54 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



THE PROPHETS 

THE prophecies are one of the great corner- 
stones of the foundations of faith. Let us 
examine the character of some of the leading 
prophets, and we will be in a better position to judge 
of the merits of their prophecies. 

The leading prophet, Isaiah, states : "But they 
have erred through wine, and through strong drink 
are out of the way : the priest and the prophet have 
erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of 
wine, they are out of the way through strong drink ; 
they err in vision, they stumble in judgment" (Isa. 
XXVIII: 7). This is a sweeping accusation against 
all prophets, for when he states, "They err in vision," 
he certainly speaks of spiritual vision. Then what 
dependency can be placed in their prophecies? 

He quotes them as follows : ". . . For we have 
placed our hope in lies, and by falsehood we are pro- 
tected" (Douay Version, Isa. XXVIII: 15). What 
a grand slogan would Isaiah's words be for the church! 

Jeremiah states of them : "I have seen also in the 
prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing : they com- 
mit adultery and walk in lies : they strengthen also 
the hands of evil-doers, that none doth return from 
his wickedness : they are all of them unto me as 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 55 

Sodom, and the inhabitants of Gomorrah. There- 
fore sayeth the Lord of Hosts concerning the proph- 
ets : behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and 
make them drink of the water of gall ; for from the 
prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth unto 
all the land" (XXIII : 14-15). 

He also represents God as saying, he will fill them 
with drunkenness : "And thou shalt say unto them, 
Thus sayeth the Lord, I will fill all the inhabitants 
of this land, even the kings that sit upon David's 
throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness" (XIII : 
13). How is that for wholesale drunkenness? 

". . . The prophet is a fool. . . . The 
prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred 
is in the house of God " (Hos. IX : 7 and 8). 

Zechariah states that the Lord will drive them out 
and they shall be ashamed of their prophecies : "And 
it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets 
shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he 
hath prophecied" (XIII: 4). ". . . And also I 
will cause the prophets ... to pass out of the 
land" (XIII: 2). 

Ezekiel states that if a prophet be deceived, that 
prophet was deceived by the Lord, and as a result of 
being deceived he will be destroyed from the midst 
of Israel: "And if a prophet be deceived when he 
hath spoken a thing, I, the Lord, have deceived that 



56 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, 
and will destroy him from the midst of my people 
Israel" (XIV: 9). Jeremiah corroborates with the 
statement, "O Lord, thou hast deceived me" (XX : 
7). He gives more testimony by stating, "For both 
prophet and priest are profane" (XXIII : 11). 

We are led to believe that Isaiah traveled through 
Egypt and Ethiopia for three years without raiment 
to cover his nakedness : "And the Lord said, Like as 
my servant, Isaiah, naked and barefoot for a sign 
and wonder upon Egypt and Ethiopia" (Isa. XX : 3). 
In the foregoing, the Lord states that it was for a 
sign and wonder upon Egypt. Would it not be a 
wonder to the average individual if the Lord's flock 
would attempt such a thing at the present time? 

"So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyp- 
tians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young 
and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks 
uncovered, to the shameof Egypt" (Isa. XX : 4) . What 
a disgusting affair! Would it not occur to a right- 
thinking mind that it would be to the shame of God 
to permit such a parade? 

Ezekiel poses as the world's greatest eater. His 
eating career began when God gave him a roll of 
parchment to eat. After consuming this parchment, 
which was filled with lamentations and woe, and after 
lying on his side for a period of three hundred ninety- 
four days, he qualified as a prophet. This was not 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 57 

all that was included in his bill of fare, however. 
The details concerning this other diet and the method 
of preparing it, may be read in the fourth chapter of 
his book. 

Ezekiel relates a story of being carried by the hand 
of the Lord to a valley, and there he was left in the 
midst of some old, dry bones. He stretched hides 
over the bones and invoked the winds to inflate them, 
when, lo! there stood upon their feet a great army 
(XXXVII) . What a valuable addition would an Eze- 
kiel be to the warring nations of Europe ! 

Hosea states that God commanded him to marry 
a woman of questionable character." . . . And 
the Lord said to Hosea, go, take thee a wife of . . . 
and children of . . . : for the land hath com- 
mitted great ... in departing from the Lord" 
(Hos. 1:2). 

We are told by the narrator of Kings that Ahaziah, 
when he succeeded his father upon the throne, was 
crippled from the effects of a fall that he had received. 
Being anxious to receive relief, he decided to try the 
aid of the gods. Accordingly he sent his messengers 
to consult with the god of Ekron. Elijah hearing it, 
intercepted the messengers and returned them to 
Ahaziah, asking him why he did not consult the God 
of Israel first (II Kings 1:6). 

Ahaziah, upon receiving Elijah's message, returned 
the messengers to Elijah with the request that Elijah 



58 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

visit the king so that he might consult more freely 
with the prophet. The king's messengers paid all 
due respect to Elijah, addressing him as the man of 
God ; but for some mysterious reason, and without 
provocation, Elijah replied, "If I be a man of God 
then let fire come down from heaven and consume 
thee and thy fifty." The account states that the fire 
appeared on time and satisfactorily consumed them. 
The king, holding Elijah's friendship in high esteem, 
sent another fifty with the same disastrous results. 
The king, being persistent, sent another body of 
thirty, and the fire immediately consumed this band, 
whereupon God took a hand in affairs and advised 
Elijah to go in person and see the king. 

Acting upon the advice from God, Elijah arose and 
went and visited the king. He carried to him the 
most gratifying news, that because he had sent his 
messengers to consult with the god of Ekron first, he 
would never rise from his bed. The inspired narrator 
informs us that he died according to the word of the 
Lord. Is this story of a prophet a good story to 
teach children? Would it make them kind, loving, 
and merciful to teach them that God and his prophet 
were in the burning business to stamp out opposition? 

Elijah's last astounding feat was his ascension to 
heaven in a chariot of fire, with horses of the same 
material. The horses and chariot seem to have been 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 59 

a part of the equipment of heaven, as there is no ac- 
count of their existence before or after this occur- 
rence. 

The probability of this miracle is disproved by other 
texts. St. Paul denies it: "Flesh and blood cannot 
inherit the kingdom of God" (I Cor. XV: 50). The 
narrator of John also denies it : "No man hath as- 
cended up to heaven, but he that came down from 
heaven" (John III: 13). Such stories as these are 
not calculated to convert any to lead a life of righteous- 
ness. They teach no lessons of any value. 

Daniel avers that God carried Habakkuk by the 
hair of the head, when Daniel was in the lions' den, 
the second time, in Babylon. The angel of the Lord 
appeared to him, Habakkuk, and told him to take the 
dinner of boiled pottage, which he had prepared, and 
go to Daniel who was in the lions' den and feed him. 
Habakkuk replied that he did not know where the 
lions' den was, nor even where Babylon was. There- 
upon the angel of the Lord seized him by the top of 
the head and carried him to the den of the lions, in 
Babylon, where Daniel was confined. 

This story of Daniel and the lions far exceeds the 
other for thrills. On this occasion Daniel was in the 
den for six days, and during this space of time the 
lions had not been fed, yet they refused to eat Daniel. 
This is the story as related in the Douay Version. 



60 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

The King James translators evidently thought that 
this was working the lion story overtime, hence they 
omitted it. 

In the Douay Version of Daniel is given the account 
of the attempted defilement of Suzanna by two old 
judges. The story is racy and absolutely devoid of 
any good moral precepts. It would appear that the 
King James translators were very wise in omitting it. 

From the foregoing it seems that the prophets' 
characters were of a questionable sort. They were 
dissipated and of a low type of morality. If their 
statements concerning each other are true, none of 
them is worthy of belief. It takes from their prophe- 
cies any claim to credence. 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 61 



WOMEN CHARACTERS OF THE BIBLE 

ARE the women whose characters are portrayed 
in the Bible worthy of imitation by the 
mothers and daughters of the present time? 
Mother Eve preferred the advice of Satan to that 
of God. Lot's daughters inebriated their father and 
committed incest with him while in this drunken 
stupor. Delilah turned traitor to her husband and 
tried repeatedly to deliver him to his enemies, and 
finally succeeded. Jael was a murderess. Tamar 
possessed all the cunning wiles of the average woman 
of the low type of morality that she represented. 
Ruth's conduct toward Boaz would at the present 
time call for adverse criticism. Rahab was the keeper 
of an immoral resort, but it did not prevent her from 
going to heaven (Heb. XI : 31 and Jas. II : 25). Su- 
zanna habitually used her husband's orchard for a 
bath room. 



62 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



WOMAN AND MARRIAGE 

WOMAN is treated by all Bible writers as an 
inferior being to man. She is given the 
blame of being the first to bring sin into the 
world. The New Testament writers never missed an 
opportunity to remind their readers of this fact. 

Moses sums up woman's sphere as follows : "When 
thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and 
the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine 
hands, and thou hast taken them captive, and seest 
among the captives a beautiful woman and hast a de- 
sire unto her, that thou wouldst have her to thy wife ; 
then shalt thou bring her home to thine house ; and 
she shall shave her head and pare her nails ; and she 
shall put the raiment of her captivity off her, and 
shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father 
and mother a full month : after that thou shalt . . . 
and be her husband and she shall be thy wife. And 
it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou 
shalt let her go whither she will : but thou shalt not 
sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make mer- 
chandise of her, because thou hast humbled her" 
(Deut. XXI: 10-14). 

Under this law, woman is treated as a chattel pure 
and simple. She has nothing to say as to whom she 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 63 

shall serve ; no right to love or be loved ; no right 
to be the happy equal in a happy home. This edict 
would populate a nation with a class of people who 
would have no respect for the sacredness of the mar- 
riage vow or home. If her lord and master found no 
delight in her, he should let her go whither she would ; 
but he had no authority to sell or make merchandise 
of her because he had ' 'humbled' ' her. 

Compare this edict of barbarism with the marriage 
relation of the North American Indian in his savage 
state. There was enough justice in the heart of this 
savage to put to shame this law of Moses. To the 
Indian who "humbled" an Indian maiden, there was 
but one alternative, and that was to be branded by 
his own tribesmen, and cast adrift and not tolerated 
in any other tribe, on account of the brand of dis- 
grace and dishonor he bore. And when the brave 
married the maiden of his choice, there was a cere- 
mony, and it was considered sacred until death. He 
was not allowed to cast her adrift because he "found 
no delight in her." 

In the twenty-ninth verse of the twenty-second 
chapter of Deuteronomy, we find a law for the regu- 
lation of the purchase of wives. For fifty shekels of 
silver, or about twenty -five dollars in money of the 
United States, a wife could be purchased. Anything 
at the present time that can be bought for twenty -five 
dollars is considered in law to be a chattel. 



64 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

St. Paul teaches that a woman should not dress 
herself attractively, wear jewelry, or any wearing ap- 
parel that is intended to make a pleasing appearance. 
To quote him: "In like manner also, that women 
adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shame- 
facedness and sobriety ; not with braided hair, or 
gold or pearls, or costly array" (I Tim. II: 9). To 
the Ephesians he states : "For the husband is the head 
of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church : 
as he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the 
church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to 
their own husbands, in everything" (V : 22-24). "And 
if they will learn anything let them ask their husbands 
at home" (I Cor. XIV: 35). 

He recommends celibacy, for the reason that a mar- 
ried man tries to make home happy by pleasing his 
wife, and by so doing neglects church duty. "But he 
that is married careth more for the things of this 
world, how he may please his wife" (I Cor. VII : 33). 
He states that marriage may be tolerated as the lesser 
of two evils ; that is, as a means of mitigating a 
burning lust. "But if they cannot contain, let them 
marry; for it is better to marry than to burn" (I 
Cor. VII: 9). Such was Paul's dream of woman's 
sphere, and such was his conception of the sacredness 
of the marriage vow. 

Christ teaches : "If any man come to me and hate 
not . . . his wife, . . . he cannot be my dis- 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 65 

ciple" (Luke XIV : 26). "The children of this world 
marry and are given in marriage : but they that shall 
be accounted worthy of that world, and the resurrec- 
tion of the dead, shall neither be married, nor take 
wives" (Douay Version, Luke XX: 34 and 35). He 
offers eternal life to wife deserters: "And everyone 
that hath forsaken . . . wife . . . for my 
name's sake shall inherit eternal life" (Matt. XIX : 
29). 

But under the laws of the state of Kansas the wife 
deserter is confined in the state penitentiary until he 
feels that it is better to stay and provide for those de- 
pendent upon him. How grand are the decrees of 
civilization when compared with the bribes offered 
from the throne of heaven ! 

Upon the welfare of mother, wife and sweetheart 
hinges the destiny of our nation and of the world. 



66 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



WHAT DOES THE BIBLE TEACH? 

THOU shalt not kill." This is a very indefinite 
law. It does not state thou shalt not kill 
thy fellow being. If it refers to the slaughter 
of animals, it is contradicted in numerous other pas- 
sages. This law was so indefinite, that in the year 
1870 the Convocation of Canterbury voted that God 
wanted it changed, and in the year 1881 the new ver- 
sion appeared with this law reading, "Thou shalt do 
no murder." 

But the Convocation neglected to vote out the 
passages of Scripture that sanction the murder of 
brothers by brothers. ". . . Thus sayeth the 
Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword by his 
side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout 
the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every 
man his companion, and every man his neighbor" 
(Exod. XXXII: 27). Here is the express command 
from the Lord God of Israel, authorizing brothers, 
neighbors, and companions to murder each other. 
The inspired narrator states that on account of this 
edict there fell of the sons of Levi three thousand men 
in one day. How is that for wholesale murder? 

Another command represented to be direct from 
God is, "Thus sayeth the Lord of Hosts . . . now 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 67 

go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all they have 
and spare them not ; but slay both man and woman, 
infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass" 
(I Sam. XV : 2 and 3). What offense were the babes 
guilty of? What had the mothers and daughters done 
that God should issue such a decree against them? 
Is the Devil's record besmirched by such an edict? 
It is related that Saul put all the inhabitants to the 
sword as per Jehovah's orders and Samuel inciden- 
tally hewed Agag, the king of the Amalekites, in pieces 
while God looked on. 

Again we read : "For thus sayeth the Lord, behold, 
I will make thee a terror to thyself, and all thy friends : 
and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and 
thine eyes shall behold it : and I will give all Judea 
into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall 
slay them with the sword" (Jer. XX: 4). Here we 
find the Lord threatening to deliver his own people 
to be slain. Jeremiah further adds : "Cursed be he 
that keepeth back his sword from blood" (XLVIII : 
10). 

Ezekiel gives evidence as follows: "And the Lord 
said unto him, ... let not your eye spare, 
neither have ye pity: slay utterly old and young, 
both maids, and little children, and women" (IX : 4-6). 
Again : "For thus sayeth the Lord God : . . . he shall 
slay with the sword thy daughters in the field : . . . 
and he shall set engines of war against thy walls" 



68 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

(XXVI: 7-9). He further contributes to the cata- 
logue of killings as follows: "For thus sayeth the 
Lord, I will bring a company upon them, . . . and 
the company shall stone them with stones, and de- 
spatch them with swords : they shall slay their sons 
and daughters, and burn up their houses with fire" 
(XXIII: 46 and 47). 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 69 



WAR 

WHAT does the book teach about war? Is it 
opposed to war? The God of the Old Testa- 
ment is termed by the narrators, "A God of 
War," "A Man of War," and "The Lord of Hosts." 

We read in Exodus : "For he said, because the 
Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have a war with 
Amalek from generation to generation" (XVII : 16). 
This brands the God of the Bible a continual fighter : 
fighting from generation to generation regardless of 
the outcome of conflicts. It is not reasonable, be- 
cause at the end of any conflict all differences might 
have been adjusted, hence the continuation of the 
war would be unnecessary. 

Another edict issued from on high: "When thou 
goest forth to war, against thine enemies, and the 
Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hand" 
(Deut. XXI : 10), surely proves that the God of Israel 
took enough interest in the war to deliver the enemy. 
Is he not entitled to the appellation, "Man of War"? 
(Exod. XV: 3.) 

In the book of Judges we find an account of a war 
waged between the Israelites and Benjamites. There 
can be no doubt of the Lord's personal conduct of 
this war (XX). Not only did he participate in wars, 



70 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

but he also urged his generals to wage wars of ex- 
termination. "And when the Lord thy God shall de- 
liver them before thee : thou shalt smite them and 
utterly destroy them" (Deut. VII : 2). 

Again we are told that Joshua, one of God's gen- 
erals, was attacked by the Canaanite, the Hittite, the 
Perrizite, and the Jebusite. The account states that 
the consolidated army was as numerous as the sands 
of the sea. But God told Joshua to have no fear, 
for God would deliver them all slain on the morrow. 
The Lord delivered them as per schedule, but Joshua 
was compelled to participate in the killing. The nar- 
rator informs us that God hardened the hearts of 
these people that he might have the privilege of kill- 
ing them (Josh. XI). 

The same narrator records an instance where God 
threw great stones from heaven upon an enemy (X : 
11). It is related that more people were slain by the 
stones thrown by God than by the opposing army. 
It might be observed that God has taken no interest 
in the European war up to the present time, and has 
thrown no stones for Czar or Kaiser. 

In the book of Joshua is recorded the account of 
the sun and moon standing still to enable Joshua to 
complete his butcheries. God must have appreciated 
the war or he would not have extended daylight to the 
bloody Joshua. 

Christ gives testimony on the subject of war, as 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 71 

follows : " Think not that I am come to send peace 
on earth : I am not come to send peace, but a sword" 
(Matt. X : 34) . His admonition to the party who had 
no sword, to sell his garment and buy one (Luke 
XXII: 36), and his command to bring his enemies 
before him and slay them (Luke XIX: 27), are all 
contradictory to the sixth commandment. 

What has Christianity done for bleeding Europe? 
Nearly every nation now engaged in this greatest of 
all world wars is a Christian nation. Those that do 
not acknowledge Christ imagine that they are in 
partnership with Jehovah. Were not these rulers 
reared in the Christian faith? Were not the soldiers 
taught in Christian schools and Christian churches? 
Then what has it profited Europe? 

Is this the fruits of teaching, "Cursed be he that 
keepeth back his sword from blood ;" "Slay every man 
his brother, every man his companion, and every man 
his neighbor ;" "Think not I am come to send peace 
on earth ; I am not come to send peace but a sword ;" 
"But those mine enemies that would not that I should 
reign over them, bring them hither and slay them 
before me ;" "He that hath no sword let him sell his 
garment and buy one?" 



72 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



TEMPERANCE 

AND thou shalt bestow that money . . . for 
strong drink or for whatsoever thy soul de- 
sireth, . . . and thou shalt rejoice, thou and 
thine household" (Deut. XIV: 26). "Give strong 
drink unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto 
those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink and 
forget his poverty and remember his misery no more" 
(Prov. XXXI : 6 and 7). To quote St. Paul : "Drink 
no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's 
sake and thine often infirmities" (I Tim. V: 23). 

Examples of righteous men being drunk are nu- 
merous : Lot, the righteous man, whom God saved from 
Sodom, was made drunk by his daughters (Gen. 
XIX : 33), as was Noah, whose sons covered him with 
blankets to prevent him making an indecent display 
of himself (Gen. IX: 21-23). 

"Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, drink thy 
wine with a merry heart : for God now accepteth thy 
works" (Eccl. IX: 7). "O Lord, my God, thou art 
very great, thou . . . maketh . . . wine that maketh 
glad the heart of man" (Psa. CIV : 1-15). 

That the Bible has not taught temperance is dem- 
onstrated by the fact that a great many of the saloons 
of the large cities are owned and operated by Chris- 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 73 

tians. To be sure these saloon-keepers are communi- 
cants of the Roman Catholic Church ; but it must be 
remembered that the Roman Church was the only- 
church that taught the Christian religion for nearly 
fifteen hundred years after the time of Christ. 

Facts are stubborn things. To prove that churches 
and church-membership influence is in favor of the 
liquor traffic, it is only necessary to consult census 
bulletin No. 103, issued by the Department of Com- 
merce of the United States government. By refer- 
ring to this bulletin we find that Kansas and Maine 
have a church membership of 28.4 and 28.9 per cent 
of the total population. Both are prohibition states, 
while Pennsylvania with a percentage of 43 is a land 
of distilleries and open saloons. There are 1200 va- 
cant churches in prohibition Kansas. 



74 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



POLYGAMY 

THUS sayeth the Lord God of Israel, I anointed 
thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee 
out of the hand of Saul : and I gave thee thy 
master's house, and thy master's wives into thy 
bosom . . . and if that had been too little, I would 
moreover have given unto thee such and such things' * 
(II Sam. XII : 7 and 8). Here we find the sanction of 
polygamy from the Lord God of Israel. If it had not 
been agreeable in his sight, he would not have deliv- 
ered to David the numerous wives of Saul. David 
being a man after God's own heart should have ap- 
preciated the favor, but on the contrary, it seems 
David wanted more wives, and God became angry at 
him on account of his greedy desire to monopolize the 
wife industry. 

Many Bible characters other than David had nu- 
merous wives. Had polygamy been dealt with as 
harshly as idolatry there would be no Mormon church 
at the present time. St. John in his Apoclypse saw 
a hot of all hot places for the worshiper of images 
(Rev. XIV: 10). 

There is also another phase of the polygamy 
question. A great many of the Bible polygamists 
kept an assortment of concubines. The narrator in 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 75 

writing Solomon's history placed the number of his 
wives at seven hundred and the number of his con- 
cubines at three hundred. David had seven wives 
and ten concubines (II Sam. XX: 3 and III: 2-5). 
"And Rehoboam loved Maachah the daughter of Ab- 
salom above all his wives and concubines : (for he 
took eighteen wives and three score concubines) ; and 
begat twenty and eight sons and three score daugh- 
ters" (II Chron. XI : 21). "But Abijah waxed mighty 
and married fourteen wives, and begat twenty and 
two sons and three score daughters" (II Chron. XIII : 
21). "And Lamech took unto him two wives" (Gen. 
IV : 19). "And Gideon had three score and ten sons 
of his body begotten : for he had many wives" (Jud. 
VIII : 30). "And Asher the father of Tekoa had two 
wives, Helah and Naarah" (I Chron. IV: 5). "And 
Shaharim begat children in the country of Moab, 
after he had sent them away ; Huskim and Baara 
were his wives" (I Chron. VIII: 8). "And Jehoida 
took for him two wives" (II Chron. XXIV: 3). 

Is it to the advantage of the rising generation to 
have such examples of polygamists with which to 
train their morals? Christian father, will you teach 
your boys that Rehoboam loved his concubines as he 
should love a wife, then tell him that all Scripture is 
given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for 
instruction in righteousness? Is it any wonder, after 
reading these accounts, that the Mormons felt in- 



76 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

spired to perpetuate the institution of polygamy? If 
it was right in the sight of God then, why is it wrong 
now? Did God have to be regenerated before he 
knew that polygamy was wrong? 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 77 



SLAVERY 

THE Bible contains a warrant for the traffic in 
human flesh. The Old Testament contains 
laws governing the sale and conduct of slaves. 
The New Testament contains laws governing the con- 
duct of slaves toward their masters. Both books 
recognize the institution. 

"Moreover of the children of the strangers that do 
sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, of their 
families that are with you, which they begat in your 
land ; and they shall be your possession. And ye 
shall take them for an inheritance for your children 
after you, to inherit them for a possession ; they shall 
be your bondmen forever" (Lev. XXV : 45 and 46). 

This passage constituted a strong bulwark in sup- 
port of the institution of slavery, as preached from the 
pulpit in the Southern states prior to the Civil War. 
There are other passages similar to the above that 
unquestionably favor the inspired institution. 

The God of Israel sold his own people into slavery. 
"And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, 
and he delivered them into the hands of the spoilers, 
that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of 
their enemies round about, . . ." (Jud. II: 14). 
"And he sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of 



78 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

Canaan, . . . and for twenty years he mightily op- 
pressed the children of Israel" (Jud. IV: 2 and 3). 
If it was right for God to sell his people, why was it 
not right for man to sell, as he considered it, his in- 
ferior fellowman? That was the way the pious slave- 
driver reasoned. 

The law as given in Exodus was that if an indi- 
vidual should buy a Hebrew slave, he was not allowed 
to enslave him for life as he could the slave from the 
other tribes. At the end of seven years he was al- 
lowed to have his freedom. If the slave had a wife 
and family at the beginning of his servitude, he was 
allowed to take his family with him. If the master 
had given him a wife, the title to the wife and children 
remained in the master. If the slave refused to take 
his liberty on account of having to leave his family, 
then the master would take him to the door post and 
bore his ear with an awl, and he became a living 
chattel of the master's forever. 

Should a father sell his daughter — think of it, sell 
his daughter! — there was another law governing this 
case (Exod. XXI: 1-8). 

The slave owner was permitted to brutally beat his 
slave on any occasion when, in his judgment, it was 
necessary. If the flogging administered was of such 
a nature as to cause instant death, the law demanded 
that the slave-driver be punished ; but if the slave 
continued in agony a day or two before death, there 
was no prescribed punishment, "for he is his money.' ' 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 79 

If a master became enraged and struck his slave in 
the eye, thereby destroying the vision, it would gain 
for the slave his freedom (Exod. XXI : 26). 

If a man stole a slave, it meant capital punishment 
for the thief (Exod. XXI : 16). If a man had in his 
possession an ox that had gored another man's slave, 
then the owner of the ox was compelled to pay to the 
owner of the slave thirty shekels in silver, or about 
fifteen dollars in money of the United States. 

Supposing that Satan had established a code of 
laws governing the conduct of slave toward master 
and of master toward slave, in what way could they 
be expected to differ from the foregoing? Is it not 
possible that these translators, in their numerous er- 
rors, have substituted the name Jehovah for that of 
Satan? Would not some of these passages read more 
consistently with these names transposed? 

Hear the merciful admonition of St. Paul to the 
man whose back was bleeding : "Servants obey your 
masters" (I Col. Ill: 22). "Obey them that rule 
over you' ' (Heb. XIII: 17). "Let as many servants 
as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy 
of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine 
be not blasphemed" (I Tim. VI : 1). 

St. Peter adds testimony as follows : "Servants be 
subject to your masters with all fear ; not only to the 
good and gentle, but also to the froward" (I Pet. 
11:18). 



80 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

It is necessary to cite the history of only one church 
to show the attitude of the church on the question of 
slavery. The Methodist Church, the strongest or- 
ganization in the Protestant world today, in the year 
1836 went on record as opposed to the abolition of 
slavery, by a vote of 120 to 14. In the year 1845 
the church divided, because Bishop Andrews held 
slaves and refused to liberate or sell them. 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 81 



LYING 

THERE are many of the leading characters of 
the Bible who practiced lying. Abraham and 
his wife (Gen. XX), Jacob and Isaac (Gen. 
XXXI) were all falsifiers ; also Rachael, Jacob's wife 
(Gen. XXXI), Jacob's sons (Gen. XXXVII), Samson 
(Jud. XVI), together with four hundred prophets (I 
Kings XXII). 

Jeremiah would have us believe that all the proph- 
ets were liars : "For from the least of them unto the 
greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness ; 
and from the prophet even unto the priest, everyone 
dealeth falsely" (VI: 13). He states every one deal- 
eth falsely, which surely includes all. 

St. Peter lied three times in about seventy -five 
minutes, and in the final outcome was given the keys 
of heaven (Luke XXII). 

St. Paul justifies lying : "For if the truth of God 
hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory : 
why yet am I also judged as a sinner" (Rom. Ill : 7). 
It would seem from Paul's comment on the affair, 
that if he had lied for the glory of God, it was unfair 
to judge him a sinner. 

How noble is the character as portrayed by the il- 
lustrious Ingersoll compared with the falsifiers of the 



82 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

Bible. "Sacred are the lips from which have issued 
only truth. Over all wealth, above all station, above 
the noble, the robed and the crowned, rises the sin- 
cere man. Happy is the man who neither paints nor 
patches, veils nor veneers! Blessed is he who wears 
no mask." 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 83 



WITCHCRAFT 

THOU shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Deut. 
XXII: 18). This has been the watchword 
and authority for the slaughter of millions of 
human beings. In our own land, in the history of 
our colonies, we find the stain of witchcraft. When 
the trials for witchcraft began, the penalty for being 
adjudged a witch was death ; this was the law in 
England, and Massachusetts followed the precept of 
the mother country, inflicting the death penalty on 
its witches. Cotton Mather posed at the trials of 
witches and wizards as a sort of bishop to decide 
when evidence was sufficient to condemn. 

"Five women were hanged in one day. Between 
the tenth of June and the twenty-second of Septem- 
ber, twenty victims were hurried to their doom. 
Fifty-five others had been tortured into abominable 
confessions. A hundred and fifty lay in prison await- 
ing their fate. Two hundred were either accused or 
suspected, and ruin seemed to impend over New 
England. But a reaction at last set in among the 
people; notwithstanding the vociferous clamor and 
denunciation of Mather, the witch tribunals were over- 
thrown."— (Ridpath.) 

The learned Sir Matthew Hale, one of England' 



84 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

most enlightened jurists, sentenced a number of poor 
women to be hanged in 1664 for the crime of witch- 
craft ; he gave as his opinion that the Bible leaves no 
doubt as to the existence of witches, and the duty of 
putting the subjects to death. Thus we have the 
evils that have grown from Bible superstition perpe- 
trated by those who were so ignorant as to accept 
the book as authority. Witchcraft, which was be- 
lieved by Bible Christians to be the work of devils, 
has long since sunk into oblivion, as Christianity has 
been civilized from year to year by the growth of 
rationalism. 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 85 



THIEVERY 

JEHOVAH gave the Israelites favor in the sight of 
the Egyptians that they might despoil them: 
"And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight 
of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such 
things as they required ; and they spoiled the Egyp- 
tians'' (Exod. XII: 36). 

Christ enjoined submission to robbery: "Of him 
that taketh away thy goods ask them not again" 
(Luke VI: 30). 

Petty larceny is commended : "Men do not despise 
a thief if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is 
hungry" (Prov. VI: 30). "When thou comest into 
thy neighbor's vineyard, then thou mayest eat grapes 
thy fill at thy pleasure, but thou shalt not put any in 
thy vessel. When thou comest into the standing 
corn of thy neighbor, then thou mayest pluck the 
ears with thine hand ; but thou shalt not move a 
sickle unto thy neighbor's standing corn" (Deut. 
XXIII: 24, 25). 



86 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



MOB RULE 

AND if a man have committed a sin worthy of 
death, and thou hang him on a tree: His 
body shall not remain all night upon the tree, 
but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day ; (for 
he that is hanged is accursed of God ;) that thy land 
be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee 
for an inheritance' ' (Deut. XXI : 22 and 23). 

The Georgia mob that hanged Leo Frank complied 
with this law to the letter, except it failed to remove 
the body and bury it. This duty devolved upon the 
State whose fair name had been besmirched by mob 
rule. 

Just as long as men worship a being in heaven, who 
advocates mob rule, just that long will mob violence 
exist on earth. Just as long as men imagine that 
they are inspired with a sense of justice superior to 
that of the courts of the land, just that long will 
society be menaced by mob rule. 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 87 



OBSCENE PASSAGES OF THE BIBLE 

WERE some of the obscene passages of the 
Bible to be published in any other work 
than the Bible the author would be liable 
to prosecution and incarceration, as there are strict 
laws in existence prohibiting the publication and cir- 
culation of obscene literature. To show the disgust- 
ing nature of some of these stories, a citation of a 
few of them will not be amiss. 

The story of Noah, with his drunkenness and in- 
decent conduct while under the influence of liquor, is 
not calculated to lead any one to adopt a cleaner 
code of morals. It is stated that his sons were 
ashamed of his conduct, and did all in their power to 
prevent his making such an indecent display of him- 
self (Gen. IX). 

The story of Abraham's conduct with his servant- 
maid, Hagar, and Sarah's gossip over the affair is 
anything but of an elevating nature (Gen. XVI). 
Lot's incest with his daughters (Gen. XIX) ; Jacob's 
conduct with both his wives' maids and the family 
talk regarding the same, is most disgusting (Gen. 
XXX). Leah's talk regarding Reuben's mandrakes 
(Gen. XXX : 14-16) ; Rachel's conduct in hiding her 



88 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

father's images (Gen. XXXI: 34 and 35), are most 
glaring accounts of obscenity. 

One of the most indecent stories in the Pentateuch 
(or in the world's catalogue of indecent literature) is 
recorded in the defilement of Dinah (Gen. XXXIV). 
Reuben's familiarity with his father's concubines is of 
a revolting nature (Gen. XXXV: 22). 

The account of Judah, Onan, and Tamar is not 
fit literature to fall into the hands of children (Gen. 
XXXVIII). It surely should bring a blush of shame 
to the cheek of even a minister of the gospel to con- 
tend that this is the proper kind of literature to send 
to the heathen for his enlightenment. Its effect 
would be merely to produce mental and moral degra- 
dation. 

In the nineteenth chapter of Judges is to be found 
a prize Bible story of debauchery and filth. What 
good can come from the reading of the filthy accounts 
of the conduct of such barbarians? The obscene na- 
ture of the story renders it repulsive in the extreme, 
but that is not the worst feature of it : "And when 
he was come into his own house, he took a knife and 
laid hold on his concubine, and divided her together 
with her bones into twelve pieces, and sent her into 
all the coasts of Israel." The inspired narrator does 
not tell us whether she was dead or alive. Can any 
commentator tell us why this Scripture was given by 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 89 

the inspiration of God ? Is it profitable for instruction 
in righteousness? 

In the fifteenth chapter, seventeenth verse of Levit- 
icus is to be found a passage that may be of material 
use to priests and preachers, but is of little value to 
the ordinary citizen. 

Amnon's treatment of his sister Tamar is not fit 
reading for a reading circle (II Sam. XIII). Job be- 
lieves in equal rights for men and women, granting to 
his wife all the rights he claimed for himself (XXXI : 
9 and 10). Men act as dogs (II Kings IX: 8). A 
passage fit only for the Bible (II Kings XVIII : 27, 
and Isa. XXXVI : 12). Isaiah offers advice to women 
(XXXII: 11). Ezekiel offers vivid descriptions 
(XVI : 20-26 and XXIII). Parents' barbarism is de- 
scribed (Deut. XXII : 15). 

The above references are but a few of the dozens 
that might be cited in this much talked of but little 
studied book. Does the reading of this class of lit- 
erature tend to teach morality? It is this class of 
passages that makes it necessary for the Christian to 
make excuses for the book. 

You, Christian reader, may feed on this literary 
carrion and revel in the delights of it, but do you 
think it right to enforce the reading of such rot in the 
free and public schools of a secular government? 



90 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



STORIES: FOOLISH AND OTHERWISE 

CAIN 

THERE are numerous absurdities in the story 
of Cain. We are told that God set a mark 
upon Cain lest any one finding him should 
kill him. In the first place, there was no one to find 
and kill him, as he had slain all the human race ex- 
cepting himself, father and mother. Granting that 
there were other people that might slay him, how 
would it be possible for them to know that the mark 
had been set there by God, and how would they know 
what the mark meant? 

How could Cain find a wife in the land of Nod 
when he had slain all the human race but three? 
Why should he build a city when there was no one to 
inhabit it? Where did he find workmen to build this 
city? (Gen. IV.) 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 91 



ARK OF THE COVENANT 

PRIOR to the building of the Temple of Solomon, 
the Jews had no temple for their God to dwell 
in. It seems from reading the Scriptures (I 
Sam. IV : 4 and II Sam. VI : 2), that God had for his 
dwelling place the space between the wings of the 
cherubim, which constituted the adornments of the 
Ark of the Covenant. 

When the Ark was brought into the camp of the 
Jews there went up such a shout that the "Earth rang 
again, " and the Philistines "heard the noise of the 
shout," which precipitated a war between the He- 
brews and the Philistines, with the result that thirty- 
thousand Hebrews were slain and the Ark of God was 
captured and carried away by the Philistines, pre- 
sumably with God in it. 

The Philistines took the Ark to Ashdod and set it 
in the house of Dagon, their god. Two gods in one 
temple was one god too many. Here is where the 
real troubles of the Philistines began. The Ark caused 
the god Dagon to fall on his face the first night, and 
the next night when Dagon fell he broke his neck, and 
"the palms of his hands were cut off" also ; there was 
nothing but "the stump of Dagon was left of him." 

The problem of the Philistines was how to get rid 



92 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

of this Ark which was working such destruction with 
their god. In addition to working damage of Dagon, 
it had caused the hand of Jehovah to be heavy upon 
them and smitten them with emerods. If any one 
ever had a peculiar idea of clean competition, it was 
Jehovah. In order to seek relief, the Philistines con- 
sulted their priests and diviners. Their advice was 
to make a new cart, place the Ark upon it, take two 
milch cows upon which there had come no yoke, take 
their calves home from them, and tie the cart to the 
cows. 

The Philistines did as their diviners had advised, 
and the Ark was safely transported back to its origi- 
nal possessors. After its return some of the natives' 
curiosity got the better of their judgment, and they 
peeped into the box of God, which act of effrontery 
so incensed Jehovah that he killed fifty thousand in- 
nocent people! (I Sam. VI: 19.) 

On another occasion, when David was transporting 
the Ark, under an armed guard of thirty thousand 
men, a man named Uzzah put forth his hand and 
took hold of the Ark, presumably to prevent it from 
falling, as the account states, "for the oxen shook it. M 
This act of thoughtfulness so angered God that he 
struck Uzzah dead as a reward for it. 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 93 



KORAH, DATHAN AND ABIRAM 

THESE three men were of a revolutionary sort 
of disposition. They succeeded in obtaining 
about two hundred fifty followers, and were 
trying to succeed to the priesthood. 

When Moses heard of this mutiny he at once re- 
ported the case to Jehovah and requested him not to 
accept their offering. Jehovah took Moses' advice 
and not only refused to accept their offering, but 
opened the ground under them and they fell in and 
were seen no more. Their followers, fearing that they 
might share the same fate, fled, but to no avail, for 
"a fire came out from the Lord" and consumed them. 
What kind of a fire could this have been to consume 
two hundred fifty people on the run? 

It was rather a singular occurrence for God and 
Moses to become angered at the same time. Usually 
when God was angered, Moses would intercede in be- 
half of the object of his anger and the sentence would 
be modified ; but in this particular incident, when 
Moses' individual rights had been infringed, he al- 
lowed God to have his own way, hence the awful pen- 
alty was inflicted. 

When these mutineers' friends grieved for them, 
after their tragic death, the most merciful Jehovah 



94 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

sent a plague that destroyed fourteen thousand people, 
for the only reason that they mourned their friends* 
death and complained of the course Moses had pur- 
sued (Num. XVI). 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 95 



SAMSON 

SAMSON was moved by the spirit of the Lord 
(Jud. XIII: 25). "Then went Samson to 
Gaza, and there he saw a . . . " (Jud. XVI : 
1). Samson's triumphant entry into the city was a 
signal for the gathering of the Gazites. And they 
"compassed him in" and lay in wait for him at the 
gates of the city. They intended to have killed him 
when morning came. Samson did not wait until 
morning to take his leave, but arose at midnight, 
took the gates of the city and carried them away. 

Another feat of his was the slaying of a thousand 
Philistines with the jaw-bone of a Hebrew donkey. 
The jaw-bone not only served as military equipment, 
but also served as a fountain from which Samson had 
no trouble in quenching his thirst after accomplish- 
ing the Herculean task (Jud. XV). 



96 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



THE QUAIL STORY 

THE anger of the God of Israel was kindled, and 
he sent a wind from the sea and it took quails 
into the camp in great numbers. The quails 
fell in such quantity as to cover an area of one thou- 
sand nine hundred thirty -six square miles to a depth 
of three feet. The inhabitants of the camp set about 
gathering great quantities of the quail, preparatory to 
having a great feast, and the one who gathered least 
gathered more than one hundred bushels of quail. 
But God was angered again, and while the poor, hun- 
gry Israelites were feasting and the flesh was yet be- 
tween their teeth, he smote them with a plague 
(Num. XI). 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 97 



EHUD 

ON one occasion when Israel had provoked God 
to anger, as a means of retaliation he had 
given a king by the name of Eglon power 
over them, and Eglon gathered an army of the chil- 
dren of Ammon and Amalek and smote the children 
of Israel. 

When the Israelites cried to God for mercy, and he 
repented, he raised them up a deliverer in the person 
of Ehud, a Benjamite, and a left-handed person. So 
Ehud made preparation to properly equip himself to 
make the delivery that God had entrusted to him. 
Accordingly he made a two-edged dagger, eighteen 
inches in length. Then to gain access to the king's 
palace he procured a present for the king, and took 
the privilege of delivering it in person. After gaining 
access to the palace, he asked the king to dismiss his 
attendants from the room, stating to him that he had 
a message from God. Eglon, being upon such inti- 
mate terms with God so recently, and being elated to 
hear from him again, dismissed his attendants, leav- 
ing him alone with Ehud. Ehud approached him to 
deliver the message, and having the dagger secreted 
upon his person, took advantage of the king's confi- 
dence and plunged the dagger into his abdomen. 



98 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

This graphic account is given by the narrator : 
"And the haft also went in after the blade ; and the 
fat closed upon the blade ; so that he could not draw 
the dagger out of his belly ; and the dirt came out" 
(Jud. Ill: 22). 

Then Ehud locked the door of the king's palace, on 
leaving, and the courtiers did not try to enter at once, 
so they did not discover the king's death until Ehud 
had made good his escape. 

This is a very fair sample of Bible stories of which 
so much is said. It is this class of stories to be found 
in the book of which The Gideon Society claims to 
have distributed in the hotels of America twenty -one 
carloads. 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 99 



JAEL 

ANOTHER story which has the true Biblical 
ring to it is the story of Jael. After a big 
battle, in which the Lord figured prominently, 
Sisera was so badly worsted that he abandoned his 
army and fled for his life. He sought refuge in the 
tent of Jael, wife of Heber, who was supposed to be 
friendly to him. 

According to the inspired narrator, Jael went out to 
meet Sisera, and told him to come in and have no 
fears. He did as requested, and she covered him 
with a mantle, as he was weary and had lain down to 
rest. 

He asked for a drink of water, and she gave him a 
drink of milk, and he drank it and lay down to rest, 
and she covered him with the mantle again. 

"Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a nail out of the 
tent, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly 
unto him and smote the nail into his temples, and 
fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep 
and weary, so he died" (Jud. IV: 21). Did he not 
have a right to die? All Scripture being profitable 
for instruction in righteousness, would not this story 
make a first-class subject for a Sunday School lesson? 

The warmest eulogy in the Bible is bestowed upon 



100 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

this murderess, Jael. Deborah, God's favorite proph- 
etess, in honor of this cruel assassination, sings, 
"Blessed above all women shall Jael, the wife of the 
Kenite, be" (Jud. V: 24). 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 101 



JEZEBEL 

THE interesting story of Jezebel may be read in 
the ninth chapter of the Second Kings, known 
in the Douay Version as Fourth Kings, in 
which we find this account : "And Jehu lifted up his 
face to the window, and said : Who is this? And two 
or three eunuchs bowed down to him. And he said to 
them: Throw her down headlong: and they threw 
her down, and the wall was sprinkled with her blood, 
and the hoofs of the horses trod upon her. And when 
he was come in, to eat, and to drink, he said : Go and 
see after that cursed woman, and bury her : because 
she is a king's daughter. And when they went to bury 
her, they found nothing but the skull, and the feet, 
and the extremities of her hands. And coming back 
they told him. And Jehu said : It is the word of the 
Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elias the Thes- 
bite, saying : In the field of Jezrahel the dogs shall 
eat the flesh of Jezebel, and the flesh of Jezebel shall 
be as . . . upon the face of the earth in the field of 
Jezrahel, so that they who pass by shall say : Is this 
the same Jezabel?" 



102 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



ZIPPORAH 

IT is related that Zipporah, the Ethiopian wife of 
Moses, was making a journey with her mulatto 
son ; that the Lord met them by the way of an inn 
and sought to kill the son. Zipporah seized a sharp 
rock and performed the rite of circumcision on the 
boy ; this seems to have saved his life, as there is no 
account of his being killed (Exod. IV: 24-26). 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 103 



THE CANNIBALS 

AT one time in Samaria there was a great fam- 
ine. The head of a Hebrew donkey was sold, 
supposedly for food, for the sum of eighty 
pieces of silver, or about forty dollars in money of 
the United States. A fourth part of a cab of the 
cleanings of the dove cote sold for five pieces of silver, 
or about two dollars and fifty cents. Talk of the 
high cost of living, or the cost of high living ; there 
is nothing in the present age that is the parallel of 
this case. 

As the king of Israel was passing upon the wall, a 
woman said unto him, give thy son that we may eat 
him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. The ac- 
count states that they boiled the king's son and ate 
him. On the following day when the king requested 
the woman to kill her son that they might eat him, 
it was discovered that she had hidden her son. The 
king was evidently disappointed at not being able to 
dine on boiled young man, for the account states he 
rent his clothes (II Kings VI). 



104 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



THE SNAKES 

IT devolved upon Aaron to demonstrate the extra- 
ordinary power of Jehovah's agents in turning or- 
dinary sticks into snakes. The Egyptians showed 
some ability in transforming sticks into reptiles, but 
the snakes from the rods of Jehovah's agents were so 
superior to the inferior Egyptian variety of stick- 
snakes that one of the Jehovah variety could, and 
did, swallow all the snakes produced by the Egyptian 
magicians and sorcerers. 

"And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and 
before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then 
Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers ; 
now the magicians of Egypt also did in like manner 
with their enchantments. For they cast down every 
man his rod and they became serpents : but Aaron's 
rod swallowed up all their rods" (Exod. VII : 10-12). 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 105 



CHRIST'S BIOGRAPHERS 

THE canonical gospels, as published in the vari- 
ous versions of the Bible, give us very little 
information on some very important matters. 
None of them fix the date of Christ's birth. The date 
of his birth is shrouded in uncertainty. The majority 
of chronologers agree that he was born 4 B. C, or 
four years prior to the beginning of the Christian era. 
Every month in the year has been guessed as the 
probable month of his birth. 

Two of the narrators attempt to give a genealogy 
of Christ to show that he was of the house of David. 
These genealogies are given of Joseph to show that 
he was of the house of David. If it was their inten- 
tion to show that Christ was of the house of David, 
why did they not give the genealogy of Mary, and 
not of Joseph, who was no blood relative of Christ? 

Matthew gives twenty-seven generations from 
David to Joseph ; Luke gives forty-two. There are 
only two generations in the two genealogies that cor- 
respond. If one genealogy is correct, the other is in- 
correct. The probability is that they are both inac- 
curate. 

According to these narrators and their genealogies, 
Christ's ancestors originated in the orgy described in 



106 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

the nineteenth chapter of Genesis. They claim that 
he is of the house of David. Ruth, according to Bible 
tradition, was the great-grandmother of David (Matt. 
1:5). The narrator of Ruth states that Ruth was a 
Moabitess (IV: 5). The particulars of the origin of 
the Moabites may be read in the nineteenth chapter 
of Genesis. 

The narrators do not agree as to the particulars 
concerning the life and teachings of Christ. Matthew 
states when Christ was born his parents fled to Egypt 
to escape the wrath of Herod, because the angel of 
the Lord had advised Joseph to do so (II : 13). Luke, 
describing the same event, states they stayed where 
he was born for forty -one days (II : 22). Details of 
purification under the Mosaic law may be read in the 
twelfth chapter of Leviticus. 

Matthew states the anointment took place two 
days before the Passover (XXVI : 2), but John states 
it was six days after (XII: 1), and Luke makes it 
much later (VII: 36). Matthew states the anoint- 
ment took place in the house of Simon, the leper 
(XXVI : 6), but Luke states it was in the house of a 
Pharisee (VII: 36), and John states it was in the 
house of Lazarus (XII : 1). 

Mark states Christ was crucified in the third hour 
(XV : 25) ; John states it was after the sixth hour 
(XIX: 14). 

Matthew states Christ was robed for the crucifixion 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 107 

in a scarlet robe (XXVII: 28), but John states it 
was a purple robe (XIX : 2). 

Three of the gospel narrators state that Simon of 
Cyrene carried Christ's cross to the scene of the cru- 
cifixion, but John states Christ carried it himself 
(XIX: 17). 

Mark states the drink offered to Christ while he was 
on the cross was wine mingled with myrrh (XV : 23), 
but Matthew states it was vinegar mingled with gall, 
and was given to him before he was upon the cross 
(XXVII: 34), and Luke states it was only vinegar 
(XXIII : 36), while John ventures the information that 
it was vinegar and hyssop (XIX : 29). Matthew and 
John state that Christ tasted it ; Mark states he re- 
fused to taste it. 

Matthew states the graves of the saints opened, and 
many who slept arose at the time of the crucifixion. 
Mark, Luke and John never heard of it or did not 
think such a trivial affair worth mentioning. 

Matthew states it was Mary Magdalene and Mary, 
mother of Jesus, who came to Christ's sepulcher 
(XXVIII : 1), but John states it was Mary Magdalene 
alone (XX : 1), and Luke states it was the two Marys 
and Joanna (XXIV: 10). John states they came 
while it was yet dark, but Mark states it was at the 
rising of the sun (XVI : 2). 

Matthew would have us believe, when this recon- 
noitering party arrived at the sepulcher, that an 



108 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

angel came from heaven, and with raiment as white 
as snow, and movements like lightning, rolled the 
stone from the door of the sepulcher (XXVIII: 2). 
Mark states when they entered the tomb they saw a 
young man therein clothed in long white garments 
(XVI: 5). Luke states there were two men clad in 
long shining garments (XXIV : 4). John, in order to 
maintain his record for exaggeration, comes forward 
with the information that there were two angels in 
the tomb, one sitting at the head and one at the foot 
of where Jesus' body had lain (XX : 12). 

Mark and Luke record the ascension of Jesus to 
heaven. Matthew did not know of it or did not 
think it worth recording. John prefers to tell a good 
fish story, and let it suffice for the story of the ascen- 
sion. 

Each narrator has a version distinctly his own con- 
cerning the inscription on the cross on which Jesus 
was crucified. John, writing as he did sixty -three 
years after the affair was supposed to have taken 
place, had a better chance of being mistaken than 
any of them. He was in all probability the monu- 
mental liar of the quartet, as he states in concluding 
his gospel, that if all were written concerning the acts 
of Jesus, the whole world could not contain all that 
would be written. 

The narrators also disagree as to the plans of sal- 
vation. Matthew makes salvation to depend entirely 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 109 

upon good works. When the young man came to 
Christ and said, "Master, what shall I do to inherit 
eternal life?" Matthew quotes Christ as saying : "If 
thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and 
give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in 
heaven : and follow me" (XIX : 21). Here is no ad- 
monition to believe or be baptized, nothing said as to 
faith. 

Mark makes belief and baptism essential to salva- 
tion. Referring to Christ's last admonition he states, 
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and 
he that believeth not shall be damned" (XVI : 16). 

Matthew refers to a prophecy : "And he came and 
dwelt in a city called Nazareth that it might be ful- 
filled which was spoken of the prophets, 'He shall be 
called a Nazarene' " (II: 23). This prophecy is not 
contained in the present Bible, nor in any of the so- 
called versions can it be found. Where Matthew ob- 
tained his information concerning this prophecy, re- 
mains for preachers and theologians to explain. 

John also bursts into the prophecy arena with, "For 
these things were done that the Scripture should be 
fulfilled, 'A bone of him shall not be broken' " (XIX : 
36). The Scripture to which John refers, and the 
only possible texts that can be referred to, is found in 
Exodus, chapter twelve, verse forty-six, and Num- 
bers, chapter nine, verse twelve, and refers to the 
Jewish feast of the Passover. The bone referred to 



110 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

in these passages is the bone of the meat that was 
used in the feast, and in no way refers to the cruci- 
fixion. Both of these prophecies are clear impositions 
on the believer. 

What do these biographers teach of the philosophy 
of Christ? Are there any believers who think Christ 
ever said : "But those mine enemies, who would not 
that I should reign over them, bring them hither and 
slay them before me" (Luke XIX : 27). "Suppose ye 
that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you 
nay : but rather division : for from henceforth there 
shall be five in one house divided, three against two, 
and two against three. The father shall be divided 
against his son, and the son against the father ; the 
mother against the daughter and the daughter against 
the mother : the mother-in-law against her daughter- 
in-law and the daughter-in-law against the mother- 
in-law" (Luke XII : 51-53). " . . . Verily I say unto 
you, that the publicans and harlots go into the king- 
dom of God before you" (Matt. XXI : 31). "Think 
not I am come to send peace on earth. I am not 
come to send peace, but a sword, for I am come to set 
a man at variance against his father and the daughter 
against her mother ;""... He that hath no sword 
let him sell his garment and buy one?" 

Does any one believe that Christ would teach us to 
love our enemies and then damn his own eternally? 
Is it possible that he was forgiving on earth and is 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 111 

unforgiving in heaven? Are there any believers who 
practice, "Take no thought of the morrow?" Do any- 
wealthy disciples part with this world's goods on ac- 
count of, "If thou wilt be perfect go and sell that 
thou hast and give to the poor?" 

To summarize what we may learn of the teachings 
of Christ: Why did he not write or cause to have 
written these gospels during his life? Then he could 
have corrected any errors that might have been made. 
Some of the writings show him to have been of a mer- 
ciful disposition, and others show him to have been 
revengeful. All this would seem to prove that these 
narrators were ordinary writers of their time, and de- 
pended entirely upon memory for the facts concern- 
ing the man whose life they so unfitly portrayed. 



112 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



ST. PETER 

ST. PETER is the repeater liar, that is, he lied 
three times about the same circumstance, and 
the third time he gave emphasis to the lie with 
an oath, and that in the presence of a lady (Matt. 
XXVI) ; and after this record of hypocrisy and de- 
ceit, he was given the keys of heaven (Matt. XVI : 
19). 

One of the remarkable incidents in the life of Peter 
is the place occupied by him in connection with the 
fate of Ananias and Sapphira. It is remarkable that 
Peter, who was guilty of denying his Lord and Master 
three times, should be chosen to pronounce sentence 
upon them for lying. Their offense was not as great 
as that of Peter's, because they were only lying to 
save money, while Peter lied concerning Christ when 
Christ's life was at stake, and he was in need of all 
the friendship he could secure. 

"Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying 
spirit in the mouth of all these prophets . . ." (I 
Kings XXII : 23). Why should God, who had put a 
lying spirit in the mouths of so many prophets, and 
had given to Peter the keys of heaven after he had 
established an unprecedented record for hypocrisy and 
lying, condemn to death these two people for lying? 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 113 

It was for this reason: Ananias and Sapphira were 
lying to keep some money from the church, and the 
church, having charge of the manuscripts, made the 
penalty so severe that there would be no occasion for 
any one to repeat the offense. 



114 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



ST. PAUL 

ST. PAUL, standing at the head of the church 
in the apostolic age, and being authority on 
the doctrine of the New Covenant, his practi- 
cal life and teachings would be regarded as constitut- 
ing a part, if not a principal part, of the basis of the 
Christian religion. It is therefore well to examine his 
doctrines and character. The testimony here pre- 
sented is gleaned from his own writings or from writ- 
ings of persons who were friendly to his cause. 

He states in his first epistle to Timothy (1 : 13), he 
had previously been "a blasphemer and persecutor, 
and injurious." Yet in the Acts of the Apostles he 
declares, "I have lived in all good conscience before 
God until this day" (XXIII: 1). These statements 
are inconsistent. 

There are three accounts of his miraculous conver- 
sion. The first, "The men stood still, speechless, 
hearing a voice, but seeing no man" (Acts IX: 7). 
In the second account we read, "They heard not the 
voice that spake to me" (Acts XXII: 9). In the 
third account Paul states, relating the experience to 
Agrippa, "We were all fallen to earth" (Acts XXVI : 
14). It is evident they could not stand speechless, 
when they were all fallen to earth. 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 115 

In First Corinthians, tenth chapter, thirty-third 
verse, he states, "I please men in all things/ ' but in 
his epistle to the Galatians, first chapter, tenth verse, 
he states, "If I yet pleased men, I should not be the 
servant of Christ." Both of these statements may 
be true, but it is a case of inspiration not readily un- 
derstood by the average reader. 

To Timothy he states, "God will have all men to be 
saved" (I Tim. II: 4), but in Romans he speaks of 
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction (IX: 22). 
In the same epistle he states, "A remnant shall be 
saved" (IX: 27). 

"Nevertheless being crafty I caught you with guile" 
(II Cor. XII : 16). This is a very bad example to set 
forth, as it indicates a bad system of morals. Such doc- 
trines can have but one effect upon youth, and that is 
to inculcate the practice of deceit. How much better 
to teach the youth : "Honesty is the oak around which 
all other virtues cling : without that they fall, and 
groveling, die in the weeds and dust." 

"And for this cause God shall send them a strong de- 
lusion, that they should believe a lie ; that they might 
all be damned . . ." (II Thess. II: 11 and 12). 
This is one of Paul's most unreasonable declarations. 
Does any one think God would cause people to be- 
lieve a lie that he might get an opportunity to damn 
them? 

Paul performed circumcision on Timotheus (Acts 



116 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

XVI : 3), then contradicts himself by saying, "If ye be 
circumcised Christ will profit you nothing" (Gal. V: 
2). "And he went through Cyria and Sicilia con- 
firming the churches, commanding them to keep the 
precepts of the ancients" (Douay Version, Acts XV: 
41). The first part of this verse is to be found in the 
Authorized Version, but the last part is omitted. It 
refers to the quarrel of Paul and Barnabas concerning 
the doctrine of circumcision. When the Protestants 
compiled their Bible it occurred to them that they did 
not want their records to show that Paul had taught 
circumcision was essential to salvation. In the Au- 
thorized Version the last portion of the verse was 
omitted. Paul evidently thought that as Christ was 
circumcised it was essential to salvation. 

Paul set forth three plans of salvation : (l) By faith : 
"By faith ye are saved and not of yourselves : it is 
the gift of God" (Eph. II: 8). "Therefore we con- 
clude that a man is justified by faith without the 
deeds of law" (Rom. Ill : 28) ; (2) By works : "God will 
render to every man according to his deeds" (Rom. 
II : 6) ; "But the doers of the law shall be justified" 
(Rom. II: 13); (3) By divine predestination: "As 
many as were ordained to eternal life" (Acts XIII : 
48). This is not given as Paul's language, but it is 
spoken with regard to his preaching. Paul has here 
shown us three roads to heaven. 

He states that Christ alone hath immortality. 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 117 

" Which in his time shall shew who is the blessed and 
only Potentate, the King of kings, the Lord of lords ; 
who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light that 
no man can approach unto . . . " (I Tim. VI : 15 
and 16). 



118 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



HEAVEN AND HELL 

BUT there is to be no forgiveness in heaven. 
God may create souls, but his pardoning power 
ceases as soon as the soul leaves its earthly 
abode. Depraved man may be regenerated on earth 
where temptation besets the way and where the Devil 
is ever alert, but there is no chance for regeneration 
or forgiveness in heaven. Once a soul passes from its 
earthly career, if that soul be condemned, according 
to Protestantism, its eternal abode will be in hell. 
No matter how forgiving Christ may have been on 
earth, there is no forgiveness in heaven. 

The Roman Church is more lenient in this respect. 
According to its doctrine, a soul may pass from earth 
and not be doomed permanently to hell. A tempo- 
rary abode is established by this church, from which 
under favorable circumstances a soul may take its 
flight to heaven. So when chances for heaven are 
considered, the Roman Church offers advantages par 
excellent. And all this goes to prove how much more 
a preacher or priest can do for a soul here than its 
creator can do hereafter. 

From reading the New Testament it would seem 
that heaven and hell are in very close proximity. 
"The same shall drink of the wrath of God, which is 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 119 

poured out without mixture into the cup of his in- 
dignation ; and he shall be tormented with fire and 
brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in 
the presence of the Lamb" (Rev. XIV : 10). This is 
intended to make heaven attractive as an eternal 
abode for the orthodox. It should bring joy and con- 
tent to the heavenly hosts and gratify the most re- 
vengeful spirit. 

In this passage is the sum total of the Christian 
forecast for the eternal future: No forgiveness in 
heaven ; no hope in hell ; no mercy in the heart of 
God. And this is what they call "Tidings of great 
joy!" 



120 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



THE ATONEMENT 

WHILE the light holds out to burn, the vilest 
sinner may return." In the foregoing phrase 
is embodied the acme of stupidity. Accord- 
ing to the plan of the atonement, the innocent not 
only become the victims of the cruel and murderous, 
but they also fall prey to the wrath of the God that 
made us all. 

Let us make a practical application of the workings 
of the atonement. Take for example the case of 
Clarence Richeson, the Baptist minister, who was 
electrocuted in Boston in the year 1912 for the mur- 
der of his former sweetheart, Avis Linnell. He, 
through the agency of poison, pushed this unsuspect- 
ing and confiding girl, together with her unborn babe, 
into eternity. She was given no privilege to make 
her peace with God; no chance to repent and be 
saved. Nothing, if the doctrine of the atonement be 
true, but eternal pain and tears. No word of conso- 
lation spoken, no hand of mercy extended to her 
through the dark depths of hell. 

But what of Richeson? Not until he was seized 
by the majesty of the law and his life demanded in 
return for the lives he had taken, did he repent. In- 
vitations had been issued, announcing his approaching 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 121 

marriage to another girl, which was to have taken 
place the same day that Avis Linnell's cold and life- 
less body was found in her rooms in the Y. W. C. A. 
Building. Then under these circumstances he made 
another spectacular acceptance of Christ. When 
Richeson was settled in the electric chair, awaiting 
the click of the switch that would usher him into 
eternity, his spiritual adviser asked him if he was 
willing to die for Jesus' sake. He replied, "I am will- 
ing to die ;" and if the doctrine of the atonement be 
true, heaven's pearly gates swung open for the soul 
of Clarence Richeson. Can stupid credulity reach 
beyond this? Christendom was willing to accept him 
as a heavenly recruit, but the commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts would tolerate him in earthly society no 
longer. 



122 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 



THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 

THREE of the gospel narrators state that any 
sin except blasphemy against the Holy Ghost 
may and will be forgiven. Richeson had 
stained his hands with human blood — not only the 
blood of the innocent, confiding girl, but also the 
blood of his unborn babe. He not only deceived and 
ruined the unsuspecting girl, but he murdered her as 
a reward for her trust. But heaven gave him his 
discharge from his sin and he entered into the heavenly 
joys of the blest. But had he denied the existence of 
the Holy Ghost, heaven's golden gates would have 
been shut against him ; with no hope of pardon, he 
would have become an eternal outcast, consorting 
with the hellhounds of perdition. Thus we see the 
insignificance of the crime of murder and the enormity 
of the crime of denying the Holy Ghost. 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 123 



IMMORTALITY 

ALL wish for happiness beyond this life. All 
wish to meet again in some fair Elysium the 
loved and lost. In every heart of tenderness 
and love this wish is a cherished hope. 

Many centuries before Christ walked the earth the 
doctrine of immortality was advanced and taught. 
The Egyptians taught this doctrine, as did the Baby- 
lonians. The North American Indian, when first 
known to the white man, held and clung to the belief 
in immortality. For the good Indian who died there 
awaited the ' 'Great Spirit" to welcome him to the 
"Happy Hunting Grounds," and his immortal soul 
spent eternity in the pleasant pursuit of what to the 
brave was eternal bliss. 

Thus, in all ages, men of all nations and races have 
interpreted their dream of immortality. The man 
who lives and labors for gold alone is content to spend 
his eternity in a city with streets of gold. The man 
who finds happiness in the possession of rare adorn- 
ments is happy in a city with walls of jasper. The 
individual of revengeful disposition finds contentment 
and happiness in the thought that there is eternal 
punishment for all who differ from him on his pet 
theories of immortality. 



124 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

To the man who lives and labors for the love of 
home, of wife, of child and friend, immortality is a 
dream of eternal love. To him the ever-present 
shadow of the parting makes more true and holy the 
love he bears his dear ones here. Streets of gold have 
no lure for him. Walls of jasper seem but worthless 
adornment. The imaginary shrieks and groans of the 
damned bring to him no sense of satisfaction. He 
lives to make a heaven on earth, hoping for immor- 
tality, hoping it will bring peace and joy to all. 

I like to think when "Over the grave bends Love 
sobbing, by her side stands Hope, and whispers, 'We 
shall meet again.' Before all life is death, and after 
all death is life. The falling leaf, touched with the 
hectic flush that testifies of autumn's death, is in a 
subtler sense a prophecy of spring." 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 125 



TRUE RELIGION 

THE wise man relies upon evidence, upon dem- 
onstration, upon experience, and occupies 
himself with one world at a time. He per- 
ceives that there is a mental horizon that we cannot 
pierce, and beyond that is the unknown — possibly the 
unknowable." He perceives that the finite mind can- 
not comprehend the Infinite. Having traveled by 
different means, he realizes something of the mean- 
ing of distance. Having some knowledge of distance, 
he may think of space, but his mind is powerless to 
conceive of the boundless expanse through which 
travel the thousands of celestial bodies which com- 
prise the various groupings of stars, constellations 
and nebulae, known and unknown to the astronomical 
world. Having lived to see time pass, he may have 
some idea of the duration of a day, or the length of 
a year; but when ages to come are considered, he 
may think of them as an eternity, but he can have no 
conception of the limitless period of time. 

A belief without reason and in spite of reason in 
the miraculous, monstrous, absurd and immoral; in 
a God who sold his own people into slavery; who 
organized an army of strange people and fought 
against his own ; who conducted a warfare by throw- 



126 REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 

ing great stones from heaven; who rained hailstones 
on innocent cattle because of the sins of their owners ; 
a creator of good and evil, whose anger burns to the 
lowest hell ; who sanctions slavery and upholds po- 
lygamy ; who killed seventy thousand people because 
their ruler had taken a census of which this God did 
not approve; who allowed his chieftain to deliver 
maidens to the ravages of the lust of soldiery ; who 
ordered the ruthless slaughter of babes ; — a belief in 
this is not religion. 

True religion is founded upon truth, justice, in- 
tegrity and charity ; a religion that our moral sense 
does not condemn, and which reason will accept. It 
leaves no chasm between reason and revelation ; it 
is a religion that does not require the reconstruction 
of man before he can become honest, truthful and 
reliable. It is a religion that will tolerate no wrong ; 
a religion whose temple is the universe and whose 
creed is practical righteousness. True religion esti- 
mates men and women for what they are, not for 
what they believe concerning the Holy Ghost and 
the proper form of baptism. A religion that es- 
tablishes man's moral worth by deed and not by 
creed. In the practice of this religion can all un- 
righteousness be banished from the earth, and the 
race elevated to a higher plane socially, morally and 
spiritually than they have ever been able to attain 
under the influence of their soul-cramping, creed- 



REVIEW OF THE BIBLES 127 

bound religions. This religion will impart true satis- 
faction and pleasure in life, and afford sure comfort 
in a dying hour. 

"Live for something. Do good and leave behind 
you a monument of virtue that the storms of time 
can never destroy. Write your name in kindness, 
love and mercy on the hearts of the thousands you 
come in contact with from year to year ; you will 
never be forgotten. NO ; your name, your deeds 
will be as legible on the hearts you leave behind as 
the stars on the brow of the evening. Good deeds 
will shine as the stars of heaven." 



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